Newcastle chairman Mike Ashley is currently mulling over a £300million proposal from Peter Kenyon to buy the club.
Ashley has been offered £125m up front to sell and has indicated he will give his response in 10 days.
Kenyon has teamed up with Florida-based GACP Sports to make the offer. Here, Sportsmail takes a look at the key players behind the grand plan.
Peter Kenyon - Potential Newcastle owner
The 65-year-old from Cheshire worked for sportswear firm Umbro before being appointed a director of Manchester United in 1997.
He was made chief executive in 2000 before moving to Chelsea, where he served as chief executive under Roman Abramovich and his time involved controversies including the alleged tapping-up of Ashley Cole and the attempt to hire then England boss Sven Goran Eriksson.
After leaving in 2009 he became a director at sports consultants Opto Advisors.
Joseph DaGrosa - Bordeaux president and GACP Sports CEO
The 55-year-old American founded multiple companies before purchasing Bordeaux last year.
Not known for pulling his punches, he has described Paris Saint-Germain as 'bullies' and when asked about competing with the French champions, he said: 'I don't have oil in my backyard, so we have to find a different way to compete, and that means getting to young talent.'
In April he launched DaGrosa Capital Partners to help manage his public investments.
David Neithardt - Partner at GACP Sports
Neithardt has worked with DaGrosa for 21 years at several different companies.
They partnered each other in the launch of DaGrosa Capital Partners earlier this year. Fluent in Spanish, he began his career as a financial analyst and is based in Miami.
Hugo Varela - Soccer schools supremo
Valera is currently an executive and advisor at Bordeaux. He is also the owner of Benfica Soccer Schools and Football and Friends — academies for young players in Portugal.
He lives in both New York and Orlando. Varela visited London last month and helped persuade Laurent Koscielny to leave Arsenal and join Bordeaux.
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As a lifelong Newcastle fan I have to say what many fans are thinking. More of Ashley's mates getting together together with the sole intention of winding up the fans. They think nothing of spending hundreds of thousands of pounds to put together a mock brochure just to raise the hopes of the Geordie Faithful, only to later dash those hopes when it turns out to have been yet another cruel hoax orchestrated for Ashley's entertainment. I suspect that with all of his businesses being under so much scrutiny at the moment, the collapse of all the high streets, and the companies that he's bought, then theres the work-force's continuing preference to actually go home at night, and even be paid each month, winding up Toon fans must be the only thing that keeps him going these days. I just thought I'd get all that in before the rest of the Toon fans chip in.