BYE-BYE TOON .. BUY BUY SHEARER; SORRY NEWCASTLE ALREADY PAYING A HEAVY PRICE FOR RELEGATION.

Byline: SIMON BIRD

FOR SALE: 21 football players, faulty goods, damaged reputation, one careless owner, accept any offer due to looming financial crisis.

Alan Shearer will put his entire squad on the market in a bid to raise pounds 30million as the cash disaster caused by relegation kicks in.

The Newcastle manager will hold talks with owner Mike Ashley in the next 48 hours, and the stark reality of regaining Premier League status will be spelled out over the boardroom table at St James' Park.

Shearer's own future as boss will depend on whether he will be handed enough leeway, during a potential financial meltdown, to build a squad capable of promotion next season. He will be offered a fouryear deal and wants to start rebuilding by the end of the week.

But there will have to be some tough negotiating. Ashley (right) has already forked out pounds 258m buying and running Newcastle, and that bill is set to rise this summer, even with major cutbacks. Shearer will be told:

SELL at least 12 players to raise pounds 30m in transfer income with the biggest assets including Oba Martins, Fabricio Coloccini and Sebastien Bassong first out of the door.

HALVE the wage bill - cutting it from its current crippling level of pounds 74m, the fifth-highest in the Premier League, with 15 stars on more than pounds 50,000 a week.

SAVE pounds 10m a year by getting rid of out-of-contract stars Michael Owen and Mark Viduka.

AXE up to 100 club employees as income plunges by an estimated pounds 50m next season.

Only when those realities have been addressed will Shearer be handed the scope to restock his squad with young, hungry players and "people who care about the club". Toon sources say their new business plan will centre on buying players under 25, to create a squad which will increase in value, not saddle the club with more debt.

Newcastle know that their biggest asset is Bassong, currently on just pounds 250,000 a year, the same as star striker Michael Owen earns in TWO WEEKS. He could raise pounds 6m, and he wants to go. Others with a sell-on value include Martins, who could head back to Italy.

Coloccini, signed for pounds 12m last summer could fetch half that value in Italy or Spain. But other big earners Alan Smith, Geremi, Joey Barton and Damien Duff, all on pounds 3m a year, will be much harder to move on, even for nominal fees.

Newcastle face the galling prospect of being in the same situation Leeds were in - letting players go, but still saddled with paying a big slice of their overblown wages for the duration of their contracts. Money going on on stars who are no longer at the club.

The only word from the club's hierarchy yesterday was a statement from managing director Derek Llambias, who expressed sympathy for owner Ashley, and the fans, in that order.

But where was the apology? MirrorSport understands Ashley now realises he made big mistakes over the last two seasons.

He appointed Dennis Wise as his mentor because, a source says, he was not a "football person and needed guidance".

Ashley believes he was let down by the now departed Wise and his transfer team, and that he was listening to the wrong people.

Ashley has told associates he will make a pounds 30m loss this term. That would have been reduced by pounds 10m a year if they had stayed in football's top flight.

But relegation means TV income reduced from pounds 40m to pounds 12m (for two seasons as a parachute payment, then to pounds 3m). Match day revenues, including season tickets, will plunge from their current level of pounds 32m, if as seems certain, crowds fall by a third from 48,000.

The club are working on relegation costing them up to pounds 50m in lost income. And financial experts say the cost to the regional economy will touch pounds 100m.

Fans will be consoled if Shearer stays in charge.

If he does, he is inheriting a financial disaster zone.

He will need a miracle, and for Ashley to stump up tens of millions, to get Toon back up at the first attempt.

CAPTION(S):

CRUNCH TYNE Shearer arrives at Newcastle's training ground yesterday and is facing a huge fight to raise transfer funds