Haven't got the foggiest, but the fact three different papers have now picked it up suggests someone has been blabbing. Might well be just all hedging their bets of course and copying each other.
I think we can all be sure that since Shearer has had these talks with Ashley, it's dawned on him exactly how much he has to do to get us back up and he's cacked himself. Of course, I can see the Chronicle etc dipping into their old archives of stories from September etc when it was last up for sale and rekindling 'old interest'.