Dave Whelan, the Wigan Athletic chairman, accused Mike Ashley, the Newcastle United owner, of having “no class” yesterday and vehemently denied that there was any prospect of Steve Bruce, the manager, being tempted to leave the club for St James’ Park.

Whelan — who is renaming Wigan’s ground the DW Stadium from next season after his new business venture, through which he has bought the fitness clubs from JJB, his former company — is angered by the behaviour of Ashley, who is a stakeholder in JJB and runs Sports Direct.

“I don’t trust him as far as I could throw him,” Whelan said of Ashley. “He’s got what he deserved at Newcastle. Newcastle are a very big club and you don’t go in there and lower all the standards. He turns up wearing a replica top in the boardroom. No class whatsoever. The minute he arrived there and turned up in the boardroom in a replica shirt and jeans and a pair of trainers, the club was gone.”

Whelan maintains that there is no chance of Bruce working for Ashley at Newcastle. “I don’t think you will ever get Steve Bruce going to a club that is run the way Mike Ashley runs it,” Whelan said. “He knows he could go and he knows he could go to Newcastle. Would he go? No chance. He loves being at this club. He is happy here.

“I know he will go in the end and if I was Man United when Sir Alex [Ferguson] decides to hang up his boots, I don’t think there is any doubt they will come.”