Toon managing director Lee Charnley chose to appoint current encumbent John Carver as interim head coach after admitting the club’s month long search for a new man proved fruitless.
It was revealed that United had 80 applicants for the role, but Charnley claimed they were unable to lure their top choices, which were said to include Remy Garde, Derby’s Steve McClaren and Ajax’s Frank de Boer as well as Rafael Benitez at Napoli.
Since then, the Toon’s top targets have began to either rule themselves out of the running, in the case of Ajax manager De Boer, or left some to question whether they would be wanted by the Toon after poor runs of form, like Derby manager McClaren.
Bookmakers across the UK still have McClaren as the favourite to take over the role at the end of the season but his Derby side have fallen on hard times in the race to the Premier League.
Defiant McClaren has claimed that a combination of injuries, individual errors and poor refereeing decisions have seen his Rams side drop from top spot to fifth in the Championship and endure a six match winless run.
Unless he can turn the club’s poor form around he even risks missing out on the play-off places.
It’s a catch 22 for the former England manager and United. If he fails to win promotion his stock may well have fallen too far for the Toon Army but equally he’s more likely to want a change of scenery after what would be two failed attempts at promotion.
But do Newcastle fans WANT McClaren? PLEASE VOTE ...
http://www.newcastleunited-mad.co.uk/interactive/voting_polls.asp