It has been a while, but Newcastle United finally lived up to their name again yesterday, with supporters, players and a former chairman banding together in collective disgust at Mike Ashley’s proposal to rebrand St James’ Park.

While Ashley’s decisions to withdraw Newcastle from the market and install Chris Hughton as permanent manager, announced on Tuesday night, were half-expected, his intention to welcome offers for the naming rights to the club’s home ground met with fierce condemnation.

It also emerged that Ashley’s rejected Barry Moat’s long-standing bid for the Coca-Cola Championship club even though the Tyneside businessman came close to matching the owner’s £80 million cash price for Newcastle.

Reports had suggested that Moat was only prepared to offer £40m up front to Ashley, who has been insisting that the full amount was deposited into an independent bank account as proof of funds, with the rest payable next year, but in recent days that gap had closed significantly.

In all, Moat’s consortium was planning to invest more than £100m into Newcastle, including’s Ashley’s fee, and there is bemusement that the sportswear manufacturer has chosen to rule out a takeover when a deal appeared close.

Sources close to Moat have also pointed out that now that the ownership question is settled, much of the further £20m that Ashley has promised to invest into Newcastle will be necessary to furnish an overdraft that Barclays insists should be kept beneath £10m, the maximum the bank allows for Football League clubs. Newcastle’s overdraft recently stood at £22m.

While Ashley’s regime is viewed as tarnished by most fans, the prospect of one of the North East’s most iconic landmarks] being renamed has prompted most concern. Freddy Shepherd, the former Newcastle chairman, has admitted that the club rejected on principle a similar approach from "branding specialists" after their flotation on the Stock Exchange in 1997.

“We were offered something like £3m for a five-year deal,” Shepherd said, “but the money could have been ten times that and I would still not have been interested. I appreciate that we’re living in a commercial world, but there are some things that money can’t buy.

“Nothing surprises me about the current regime so news that they are ready to sell the naming rights isn't exactly a shock, but St James’ Park is one of the most famous stadia in the world.

“You can go anywhere on this planet and everyone knows St James’ is the home of Newcastle United. The two go together. Fans will be horrified, angry and upset about this. They’ve had to put up with a lot in recent months and this is just another blow.”

The assessment from the Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) was as withering. “[Newcastle] is beginning to resemble one of Mr Ashley’s famous sales at Sports Direct - chaotic, cheap and a shambles,” Colin Whittle, a NUST official, said.

“Now, as his latest slap in the face to the fans and the city, he wants to sell off the famous name of St James‘ Park. Everything he does now seems to be calculated to thumb a nose at his customers.”

In Ashley’s two years in charge, Newcastle have, among a myriad of other things, had five managers, been relegated, held a fire-sale of players and been humiliated publicly when Kevin Keegan’s claim for constructive dismissal was upheld by an independent arbitration panel.

“It’s been one thing after another,” Steve Howey, the former Newcastle defender, said. “The idea of renaming the stadium has rattled everybody’s cage. If the club was moving grounds, if the old one was dilapidated and falling apart, then fair enough, move on. But it isn’t. A piece of Newcastle would die if that happened.”