Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley will challenge prospective buyer Amanda Staveley to come back with a serious offer to buy the club after an opening bid of less than £300m was rejected.

Newcastle are braced for a second offer to be made in the next few days and want to see a significant increase in the amount of money on the table. Although Ashley is willing to take payment in instalments, there is much work to be done in terms of agreeing an acceptable price.

If that does not happen, the talks will be on the brink of collapse and the club would effectively be taken off the market. Staveley and her PCP financial backers are the only serious bidders and Ashley does not want a prospective takeover hanging over the business all season.

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The thought of Ashley ending his attempts to fund a buyer will send a shudder of dread through supporters, who are desperate to see the end of his parsimonious regime on Tyneside. But he will not be pressurised into anything and has always maintained he would only sell for a price he believes is fair.

Ashley is genuine in his desire to sell up, but he will not be messed around and there is a growing concern within St James’ Park that the negotiations with Staveley are not progressing as they should be at this stage of the process.

Suspicions have been heightened by the fact news of the bid, which was made last week, has been leaked out when both parties have signed Non-Disclosure Agreements. Indeed, sources close to the talks have even raised the idea that Staveley could be using Newcastle to raise her own profile, although it is difficult to see why she would want, or need, to do so.

Those close to her insist her interest is sincere and she believes Newcastle are a club of vast untapped potential.

However, when Ashley launched his takeover bid of Newcastle 10 years ago, there was no publicity around it and the deal was done before anything came out in the media. He has always been wary of those who court publicity when trying to do business deals.

As things stand, negotiations will continue and a second bid is anticipated before the end of the week after both sides denied reports that the first one had been a take it or leave it offer.

Manager Rafa Benitez has remained level-headed throughout the process and will only believe a takeover is going to happen when the contracts are signed. He is more worried about the team’s form after three successive defeats and does not want to be drawn into any aspect of the negotiations.

Although Benitez has a list of potential transfer targets in place for January he does not know whether there is going to be any money to spend and has also played down suggestions he will be given £100m to spend if Staveley completes a takeover before the end of the year.