Former Sunderland shareholder Charlie Chawke is planning a takeover bid for Newcastle United.

Dublin publican Chawke was part of the Drumaville Consortium which took over Sunderland three years ago but is no longer involved at the Stadium of Light after Ellis Short completed his buy-out in May.

Several consortia have matched owner Mike Ashley's £100million asking price for the Magpies, with groups from Malaysia and America understood to be leading the way.

However, no deal has yet been done, and Chawke views the prospect of buying the St James' Park outfit as "a very viable option".

Fellow publican Louis Fitzgerald, another member of the Drumaville Consortium, is also in favour of the deal.

Speaking on Irish radio station RTE, he said: "We're putting a syndicate hopefully together to do just that (bid for Newcastle).

"We had a great time in Sunderland. We got seven Irish people and one English person together with a syndicate and we succeeded in acquiring Sunderland.

"We had three great years there but unfortunately we're gone now. It's sold out to an American and we're looking for options and Newcastle is a very viable option at the moment.

"It's on sale for about 100million which is about 500million less than what it was worth a year and a half or two years ago.

"We have to look at options other than Sunderland - and Newcastle would fit very nicely into our portfolio."