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TalkSPORT pundit Dave Kitson has made the sensational claim that Newcastle United will be sold before the end of the season.

Kitson was speaking to Tom Rennie as part of TalkSPORT’s international commentary team before last Monday’s match at Arsenal and he said the club was in advanced stages of being sold for a fee of between £300million and £400million.

The claim was picked up by United fans Stateside but the commentary is not broadcast in the UK, so few will have heard it here. ChronicleLive obtained the clip and it will no doubt get United fans talking – even if there are few signs on Tyneside that anything is imminent on the sale of the club.

Asked about the future of Newcastle Kitson – who, interestingly, now works in the business side of football as well as being a pundit – said: “Well it's funny – I can let you in on a little bit of an exclusive. Don’t ask me how I know but I do. This club will be sold before the end of the season.”

Host Rennie asked him what the value of the purchase would be and Kitson replied: “It’s going to be between £300million and £400million. But it is going.”

Rennie asked: ‘So all this stuff about Mike Ashley taking it off the market is just guff?’ Kitson’s response was: “It’s gone. It’s being done as we speak.”

He was then asked if it will be an owner that Newcastle fans will be pleased with. He replied: “I can’t tell you that but as you know, outside of my day job I do venture into these areas and this is pretty much done.”

Takeover talk has gone very quiet at the club and after the club broke off talks with Peter Kenyon , no other serious bidders have emerged – certainly publicly. And there will be head scratching from the club about the claims, even if there were denials about Mike Ashley taking the club off the market.

Newcastle sources have played down the claims, while TalkSPORT have emphasised that Kitson is “well-connected” in the world of football and has made previous claims about off-the-field activity that have been backed up. The former Stoke and Middlesbrough striker wouldn’t be drawn on any further details either on or off air.

We recently revealed that the club have changed the takeover process, making any interested parties do internal due diligence before allowing them access to the books.

The conversation continued to the subject of Benitez and the job that he has done at St James’ Park, with the TalkSPORT man saying Benitez should be a candidate for the LMA manager of the year award.

Kitson said: “No they’re not going to do better than Rafa. It’s not too long ago that Tony Pulis won manager of the year for keeping a team up. Rafa Benitez has had even less resources.”