Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley is still holding out for an asking price close to £340million - despite a fresh claim from the Paris-based Bellagraph Nova group.
One of the group's co-founders Evangeline Shen - who wants to front a bid to buy the club - has gone public to the BBC about their discussions with the Magpies.
But it is understood that Ashley himself is yet to become engaged in the conversation as the bid of £280million proposal was deemed too low.
Shen said: "Bidding for Newcastle is part of our strategy because it's a well-known football club but still has room to improve, and we believe that improvement is good for the club as well as for our brand.
"We started real planning for the club such as whom to hire as trainer and whom to sign for players."
Newcastle have declined the chance to comment on the bid from Bellegraph Nova.
Ashley remains committed to running Newcastle but the club is still for sale and he is pursuing legal action against the Premier League for what he sees as a questionable outcome of the owners and directors test which saw Amanda Staveley, the Reuben Brothers and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia fail in their efforts to buy the club.
