Ashley bought the "business" six years ago, and it is claimed he will listen to offers, but it is "not a matter of urgency".
Indeed, that has been the situation since the day he completed a £134.4million takeover during the summer of 2007.
Above all else, Ashley is a businessman and the chance to make a profit on a club in which he has since invested in excess of a further £130million is one which would prove difficult to resist.
However, the fact remains that there are no offers on the table and none in the pipeline.
Ashley has, of course, twice tried to sell Newcastle - once in the wake of Kevin Keegan's departure from his second spell as manager, and then again following relegation from the Barclays Premier League at the end of the 2008-09 season with fans in open revolt on both occasions.
However, at neither point did any party come remotely close to clinching a deal despite fevered speculation, with even an ill-fated mission to the cash-rich Middle East failing to smoke out a buyer.
Having taken the club off the market for the second time in October 2009 with then manager Chris Hughton and his players engaged in what would prove to be a successful battle to drag it back into the top flight at the first attempt, Ashley drew a line in the sand and set about the task of rebuilding it.
United struggled over the line to safety last season, with manager Alan Pardew baring the brunt of supporter frustration, but Ashley and Derek Llambias finding were also in the firing line.
However, a new pantomime villain strode on to the stage last week when the much-maligned Joe Kinnear was handed the role of director of football, prompting Llambias' exit and a fresh wave of bile.
Several hundred supporters attended a meeting at Newcastle Labour Club on Monday evening at which a motion was passed calling on Ashley to get out of town, something which has been a familiar refrain throughout his reign.
But as he has shown so often in the past, that will be of little concern to Ashley, who remains as thick skinned as ever.
But if someone came up with a good offer ...
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Source: Newcastle United Mad
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