THE feeling around Newcastle is that their club is no longer Mike Ashley's favourite toy.

They are not overly distraught about that. Ashley has been the owner of Newcastle United for almost eight years now, too long in the eyes of many supporters who feel that on his watch their team has stagnated rather than flourished.

Those fans have followed Ashley's recent involvement with Rangers with interest. What might it mean for Newcastle? Their greatest hope is that Ashley decides that Rangers will deliver a greater return for his investment in the long run and decide to finally sell up at St James' Park. There is also the possibility of his interest in two clubs at the same time affecting Newcastle's eligibility for European football in future seasons. At a club without a major honour to its name since 1969, these regular excursions into the Europa League - or occasionally the Champions League - are often what sustains an otherwise very frustrated and long-suffering support.

To that end, the Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) have written to UEFA, the Football Association, the Premier League, the Football League and their local MP to try to get clarification on the matter. While the Scottish Football Association have already taken a dim view of Ashley possibly having controlling interest in two clubs - having blocked an attempt to increase his shareholding in Rangers and called him to a hearing on the 27th of this month - there has been little intervention in the matter by the English or European authorities, something that has surprised some Newcastle supporters.

"We've written to a number of bodies including the FA, although if we get a response from them I'll be amazed," Norman Watson, chairman of NUST, told Herald Sport. "We've also written to the Premier League and UEFA so it will be interesting to see what they all say. The SFA seem to be taking quite an interest in what Mike Ashley is up to so you would have thought some of the authorities down here would be doing likewise. But that doesn't seem to be the case so far.

"Hopefully we will get some clarity as European football is a big thing for Newcastle fans. We've been in and out over the years - with Bobby Robson, Kevin Keegan and others - so it's not just a fanciful notion. Newcastle is a club that should be regularly in Europe and hopefully Ashley's involvement with Rangers won't provide an impediment to that."

Ashley's lack of media profile - he has not done a single interview during his time in charge of Newcastle - means trying to work out his intentions amounts to second-guessing. There has been a suggestion that he has no plans to sell the Tyneside club before next year at the very earliest but his recent interest in Rangers - as well as the surprise departure of manager Alan Pardew for Crystal Palace - have raised hopes that he could move on before then.

"I think most of the Newcastle fans see what is happening at Rangers and hope that it might persuade him to move on from here," added Watson. "It's been the case for a while that they're fed up with Ashley and they've made no bones about that, partly because of his lack of ambition and partly because of the fact that he just never tells us anything. They saw in Pardew a manager who was simply Ashley's PR man which is why Pardew was disliked so much. He went over the call of duty by dedicating wins to Ashley - although he never seemed to dedicate any losses to him! Now Ashley might have a job finding a manager who will be as subservient as Pardew was."

The Rangers story over the past few years has had more characters - in all senses of the word - than the Chinese alphabet. Ashley had seemed to have emerged as the key figure in charge of the Ibrox club's destiny but the appearance of the Three Bears and the Phoenix Suns' Robert Sarver - as well as the return of Dave King - mean he now has a power struggle on his hands. Watson hopes for the Rangers fans' sake that Ashley is the man that ends up losing out. "If they're not already, then they should be alarmed that he's taking such an interest in their club. Rangers seems to be his focus at the moment given the lack of rush to try to find a successor for Pardew. We think we're a reasonably big club and we deserve to hear what the plan is. But we never hear a dicky bird from Ashley. The longer he stays at Rangers it will be the same for their fans too. If there's to be a power struggle they should hope one of the other groups comes out on top."