Manager Steve King topped five years of unbridled success by lifting the Blue Square South championship trophy after Saturday's game with already-relegated Weston-super-Mare.

But what should have been a day of celebration for Lewes fans, players and staff was more like a wake, with everybody knowing the game's worst-kept secret – that King was on the way out of the Dripping Pan.

Although the club has yet to officially confirm King's departure – with the manager himself staying tight-lipped – it is no secret that Saturday was his last game in charge of the Rooks.

His skipper, Steve Robinson, said he was "devastated" at King's departure and hinted that the team that won promotion to the Blue Square Premier could now be broken up.

Sport Express is led to believe that rumours of a consortium buying the club ARE true, with Kevin Keehan, the Brighton & Hove Albion commercial director named as the most likely to lead such a group.

Sunday's Non League Paper said they "understood that one of the backers, commercial director Kevin Keehan, will put himself in charge of the team with an ex-Brighton player coming in as his coach".

However, rival paper the Non League Today said members of the consortium were "thought to include former Charlton star and one-time Lewes player John Robinson and ex-Seagulls legend Steve Foster" – although the NLT said Foster, "now a successful businessman on the south coast", denied being involved.

Other names to have been mentioned include ex-Arsenal defender Martin Keown, Ian Chapman, Gary Elphick and Steve Brown.

Express Sport have also heard the names of Charlie Oatway and Kerry Mayo have been linked to a potential management team at the Dripping Pan.

Obviously, not all of these rumours can be true and the sooner the people in the know at the club speak on the record the better (we hope that will be in the next 24 hours).

But senior figures at the Pan, whilst admitting the recent turn of events have been a PR disaster, feel the long-term developments will be a positive move for the club.

Only time will tell if that is the case. But for now, 'positive' is the last word to describe the mood in and around Lewes Football Club.