NEWCASTLE UNITED believe that Jermaine Jenas is on the verge of submitting a transfer request. While the club have maintained that the England midfield player is not for sale — placing a restrictive £20 million valuation on him — Jenas has become increasingly unsettled at St James’ Park and there is a growing recognition that a separation may best suit both parties.

Arsenal and Manchester United retain a longstanding interest in the 22-year-old, but Tottenham Hotspur are the only club to have made a substantive inquiry this summer; it remains to be seen whether that interest is intact. Steve McClaren, the Middlesbrough manager, is also an admirer of the player, who joined Newcastle from Nottingham Forest for £5 million in 2002.

A bid of £10 million would probably be sufficient to secure his signature, which is significantly higher than Tottenham, who have just signed Edgar Davids, would wish to pay. “J.J. is a good lad and a good player,” a senior Newcastle source said, “but there has been a lot of speculation about his future and we feel he may have been affected by it.” Yet by asking to move, Jenas would forfeit any loyalty payment.

In an ideal world, Newcastle would hope to push up the price for a talented young footballer who has been capped 12 times by his country. Arsène Wenger has spoken about his regard for Jenas, for whom London is apparently the preferred destination, but has not taken the matter farther.

Tyneside was awash with rumours on Wednesday night that Jenas had been involved in a heated argument with Graeme Souness after being asked to play at full back in the Intertoto Cup defeat by Deportivo La Coruña should Stephen Carr have failed a fitness test, but that allegation has been denied. “This is absolute nonsense,” Souness said.

While there has been no row, there is frustration that Jenas has missed matches owing to niggling injuries and Souness is confident that, in Emre Belözoglu and Scott Parker, he has signed two quality midfield players. He does not wish to lose Jenas, but would not demur if he was permitted to use the funds to bolster a depleted squad.

That eventuality is proving easier said than done, however, and Newcastle’s previous optimism that Luis Boa Morte would soon be following Emre, Parker and Craig Moore to Tyneside is dissipating rapidly. The Portugal winger is keen to move north, but his present employers are adamant that only one more player will be sold this summer and Steed Malbranque is now close to joining Manchester City.

Stuart Pearce, the City manager, has submitted an improved £5 million bid for Malbranque, which should be acceptable to Fulham and only the French midfield player’s personal terms would then stand in the way of a deal being completed. There are suggestions that Malbranque is not enthused about leaving London, yet Newcastle are bracing themselves for bad tidings regarding Boa Morte. “This is a big blow, ” the source said.

There have been several setbacks in recent days, including the team’s failure to qualify for the Uefa Cup. Newcastle have given up trying to persuade Michael Owen to leave Real Madrid for a season, Middlesbrough will resist their neighbours’ attempts to buy Mark Viduka unless Jenas is part of the equation and progress has been sluggish on Nicolas Anelka’s proposed transfer from Fenerbahçe.

If Jenas were to leave, nine senior professionals would have departed Newcastle since the end of last season, including Laurent Robert, Nicky Butt, Patrick Kluivert, Craig Bellamy and Aaron Hughes. There was one new face at the club yesterday when Francesco Coco, the 27-year-old full back, arrived at St James’ Park to discuss a one-year loan deal from Inter Milan.

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