Fans had feared about the club’s ability to compete at the top level after its financial problems contributed to it losing its status as one of Britain’s “big four” clubs. It has outstanding loans of £237m.

Supporters will be relieved at the intervention, which will also provide extra spending money for Rafa Benitez, the club manager.

The new owner will be sought by Barclays Capital, the bank’s investment arm. The deal will displace the club’s current lenders and bring in as chairman British Airways’ Martin Broughton.

Supporters had campaigned to remove the club’s owners, the American businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett, who had disagreed over its funding and publicly argued with Benitez over spending on players.

An adviser working on the deal said: “The club’s finances are improving. It just needs breathing space to get itself into shape before it is sold.”

Barclays’ move highlights English football’s troubled finances. Several clubs are struggling with high player wages and crippling debts. This year Portsmouth became the first Premier League club to go into administration.

Foreign owners who bought in at the height of the football boom, often saddling the clubs they bought with debt, have proved increasingly unpopular with fans. Manchester United supporters want to oust the Glazer family, the American investors who bought the club in 2005.