Another week has passed without a break in the deadlock between Mike Ashley and prospective owner Barry Moat, but we hear the deal could be struck as early as next week.
Comments made by Alan Shearer during a talk-in at a Tyneside school have underlined the fact he will not wait around forever to become manager.
Hughton: “At this moment, that is probably the furthest thing from my mind. What we are doing is just concentrating all we can on the football.
“At the moment, anything outside the team is an outside issue for someone else to deal with. No, my employment has not changed.
“All I can do is wait for the call when it happens. I think probably, the way I look at it is, there is a massive issue which is the ownership of the club which affects lots of different areas of the club.
“Around that, what we have been able to do is make sure things on the football pitch have run quite smoothly. Of course, my position comes very much into that. What I have been told is that as soon as there is an announcement to be made, I will be told.
“I presume that announcement will be whether the club is sold or whether the board accepts that they will be in ownership of this club for a period of time.
“I am being regularly updated, but I suppose there are only two things they can tell me. One thing is that nothing has changed, the other is that it has changed – and the second thing they have not told me yet.”