Newcastle United have refused to comment on reports that owner Mike Ashley has agreed to sell the club to Dubai-based billionaire Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan.

Telegraph Sport has spoken to several high placed sources at St James’ Park who insisted they could not shed any light on the report Ashley has accepted an offer of £350m.

Despite repeated attempts to clarify the situation, all questions were greeted with a “no comment” although one source confirmed the fee mentioned was an accurate reflection of the asking price.

When asked if the no comment was tacit confirmation that a deal was in place, a senior source refused to confirm or deny, suggesting an official response would only come after they had held a conversation with Ashley on Monday morning.

Ashley has been involved in clandestine takeover talks with at least two interested parties for several weeks, but these have only taken place because both sides promised to do so under strict secrecy.

Rafa Benitez's future also remains undecided credit: GETTY IMAGES

Neither of the two groups known to Telegraph Sport to be interested in a takeover are involved with bin Zayed Al Nehayan and were as surprised as anyone when claims he had agreed to sell the club were made on Sunday night.

And one even went so far as to suggest the story was an attempt to put pressure on them to agree to Ashley’s terms for a deal to go through.

However, according to The Sun, Ashley has agreed to sell to the Sheikh, who is a cousin of Manchester City’s Arab owner Sheikh Mansour and the relevant papers for the takeover to be completed have already been sent to the Premier League.

Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan is said to be a senior member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and failed in a £2billion takeover of Liverpool last year.

The 61-year-old is president of the UAE Sailing and Rowing Federation but is also a keen follower of football and is known to have a long-standing interest in buying an English club.

More to follow