The news comes less than 24 hours after Senegal international midfielder Henri Saivet joined the club on a five and a half-year from Bordeaux for an undisclosed fee.

Shelvey's situation has been monitored from Tyneside for some time with former boss Alan Pardew an admirer during his spell at St James' Park.

However, they have chosen to make their move at a point when the England international is out of favour at the Liberty Stadium, where he has started only two games since November 21, the last of them Sunday’s 3-2 FA Cup third round defeat at League Two Oxford.

After that game, the former Charlton and Liverpool player became involved in a row with a disgruntled fan as he left the pitch.

McClaren has been desperate to add players who know the Premier League to his squad after seeing summer signings Aleksandar Mitrovic and Florian Thauvin struggle to establish themselves in English football.

While the club has concentrated its early activity on central midfield, there is little doubt that its main focus has to be to address a crippling lack of goals – the Magpies have scored only 19 in their 20 league games to date, and six of those came in one game against Norwich.

To that end, Newcastle are maintaining an interest in Tottenham and England winger Andros Townsend and are hopeful progress can be made on that front, and are pursuing a series of striking targets.

They received no encouragement whatsoever in their enquiries over Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette, but remain on the trail of Wolfsburg’s Bas Dost – both, of course, overseas targets – and are keeping close tabs on developments with former frontman Andy Carroll, now at West Ham, and West Brom’s Saido Berahino, another man they have watched for some time.

However, their focus on QPR’s Charlie Austin appears to be dwindling with concerns over injuries and the apparent willingness of the player to remain where he is and run down his contract making his capture less likely.