Sky Sports reporter for Newcastle United, Keith Downie, has been speaking on the latest news to emerge in the Toon’s search to replace Steve Bruce.
Newcastle were believed to have been closing in on Villarreal manager Unai Emery in the early stages of this week, however, he has since confirmed he will not the leaving the Spanish club.
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It is reported the new ownership on Tyneside had held talks with both Emery and Eddie Howe over the weekend but they had chosen to pursue the former Arsenal manager.
Howe has now been out of management for well over a year and has since turned down the opportunity to take over at Parkhead as the Celtic manager after they parted ways with Neil Lennon.
With Emery now out of the picture for the vacancy at St. James’ Park, Downie has been speaking outside St. James’ Park on the latest regarding their managerial search.
“There’s two outstanding names that are there that have been on the periphery for a while. One of them is Eddie Howe, who we know there has been an interest from within the consortium.
“He’s out of work just now, he would be a fairly easy appointment. I think he would take this job in a heartbeat. He is someone who could potentially come in.
“The other is Roberto Martinez, who’s currently with Belgium, they would then have the issue of trying to get him out of his contract.”
TIF Thoughts on Newcastle’s manager search…
It is now over two weeks since Bruce was sacked by Newcastle and there is still no replacement in place ahead of their 11th game of the Premier League season against Brighton & Hove Albion.
We do not think this will send out a great message to the Toon Army from the new owners on Tyneside, as we think they would have expected Bruce’s replacement to have been appointed by now.
Paulo Fonseca, Lucien Favre, Unai Emery, Eddie Howe and Antonio Conte have all been linked with the vacancy and still, the wait goes on.
And on top of that, Newcastle are hardly in a position in the league table to take their time and wait for the right man to come along.
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