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Newcastle owner Mike Ashley wants a staggering £481million for the club, according to reports.

The Sports Direct mogul is believed to currently be in Dubai to try and sell the club after falling foul of the Toon Army following Kevin Keegan's departure from St James's Park.

ArabianBusiness.com claims talks have opened between Ashley and the Dubai-based group Zabeel Investments.

Sale documents have been given to Zabeel by Ashley containing a price of 860 million US dollars (£481million) for the club he bought for £130million 16 months ago, and then ploughed another £100million into.

Zabeel Investments is owned by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum and was part of the consortium that tried to buy Liverpool in 2006.

However, Zabeel Investments chairman Mohammed Ali Al Hashimi has insisted he has not been directly approached.
Not interested

He told Arabian Business: "We have not had any contact. I am not interested in any [English Premier League club] right now."

City sources still remain dubious whether a deal can be done with Middle East investors at anything like the level that Ashley wants.

One source said: "In reality Newcastle have been up for sale for the last six months. If there had been interest from Dubai or Abu Dhabi it would already have surfaced.

"What makes it even more difficult is that Newcastle do not appear as a very saleable asset at the moment - the club has no manager, the fans are protesting and the team are struggling."

Meanwhile, despite reports to the contrary, Ashley has yet to make contact with Keith Harris, the former Football League chairman who helped broker the takeovers of Manchester City by Thaksin Shinawatra and West Ham by their Icelandic consortium.