The troubled striker has yet to feature this season due to off-the-field problems with Alan Pardew ... as the player refused to turn up for training on time.
Frustrated Pardew had Ranger train with the Youth team, rather than the first team squad, until he proved he could have a run of good punctuality.
Ranger was drafted back into the first-team pool - not because he has become an angel - but due to lack of numbers this week.
But it was suggested this week "It would be a cold day in Hell before Ranger comes back into first-team contention."
Mike Ashley wants the player off the books, hoping to get £1m for the striker.
But only Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday have been interested, and neither will cough up a fee.
DANNY THE DOG!
'X Factor' judge Tulisa Contostavlos said she does not want to get into a "war of words" with the girlfriend of Newcastle United footballer Danny Simpson.
Photographs of the singer with the footballer have been widely published, and Simpson’s girlfriend said he “cheated” on her.
Stephanie Ward, the mother of Simpson’s daughter Skye-Lorena, said she is expecting their second child.
She told The Sun: “I have a baby on the way and a little girl who’s one-and-a-half. If he wants to leave that, then that’s up to him.
“But I won’t be here for him if he comes back. I don’t care any more. He’s made his bed, so he can lie in it.”
Speaking to her fans on Twitter, Contostavlos said: “I don’t want 2 get in2 a public war of words, but what is being written about me 2moro is absolutely not true.”
The star, who is currently on screen in The X Factor and rose to fame as part of N-Dubz, was pictured in Newcastle and Manchester with Simpson.