But the Profitable Group – which has ex-Liverpool midfielder Steve McMahon as a director – is close to agreeing a money-spinning deal to open Shearer's bars across the Far East.

McMahon has been on Tyneside this week for discussions with the club's hierarchy.

Profitable had initially been interested in taking over Newcastle, whose billionaire owner Mike Ashley – who has admitted he is looking for investors – will break his silence this weekend in a new United magazine and deny reports he is keen to sell up after just a year in charge.

Ashley will insist he is in it for the long haul, and is totally committed to his investment.

Profitable, meanwhile, will now attempt to buy another English club after their buyout proposal fell on deaf ears.

However, the Gazette understands a deal is close for a new bar in Asia chain based on Shearer's, which is housed beneath the Gallowgate End.

Record goalscorer Alan Shearer is still on Newcastle's payroll as an ambassador, and under the deal which has been hammered out at a Quayside hotel in the last 48 hours, he would travel to the Far East to open the bars and make public appearances to promote United.

McMahon yesterday said he wanted to make Newcastle – which has lost ground on its Premier League rivals in the lucrative Asian market in recent years – the most popular club in the region.

And he sees a string of Shearer's bars as the best way to get a foot in the door.

United last toured the Far East in 2004, when Sir Bobby Robson took his team to Hong Kong and Thailand for two fixtures.