Xavi? Glasner? Iraola? Who are the Newcastle manager contenders after Eddie Howe sack? | OneFootball

This season’s Premier League table is both daft and fast-changing, but the uncomfortable truth for Newcastle is they’ll spend the international-break fortnight awkwardly close to the relegation zone.

A pair of insipid away defeats at West Ham and now Brentford have seen them fall out the back of the mid-table peloton; they’re now closer to the bottom three than they are 13th-placed Everton.

And that means Eddie Howe is just starting to come under some pressure. He’s not the manager in most immediate danger – that would be Daniel Farke at Leeds – but there’s suddenly precious little cover anywhere else for a manager who has done such great things at Newcastle but has never truly felt like the man to lead them all the way to where they see themselves belonging since the lottery win.

Time to ask the question, then: who will be the next Newcastle manager? These are the latest odds from sportscasting.com.

9=) Roberto Mancini

Certainly possesses the requisite CV and glamour having won Italian and English titles as well as the Euros with Italy in 2020, but it is now approaching a decade since he managed in top-tier club football having left Inter in 2016. It’s something any would-be employer has to consider.

9=) Marco Rose

Currently favourite for the surely more imminently available Leeds job, where the Red Bull connections might be causing two and two to equal five. Still feels far likelier he ends up there than here, though.

7=) Edin Terzic

There are certain managers who from very early on just seem to have a dash of Barclays about them. We’ve always felt that way about Terzic, but the more time passes since his departure from Borussia Dortmund – a club that itself has a greater connection than most to the Barclays pipeline both in and out – the harder it gets to see someone from Our League taking a punt.

Feels like he needs an eye-catching spell somewhere else first now.

7=) Adi Hutter

Sacked by Monaco last month after a sticky run of form. Finishing best of the rest in Ligue 1 as he did in his first season there is nothing to be sniffed at, but there’s a distinct lack of elite success on Hutter’s CV and it seems unlikely Newcastle would want to be making another speculative appointment with their next manager. Feels far more like they’ll be looking for a statement signing, and Hutter ain’t that.

5=) Erik Ten Hag

Of course he’s there. He always is. Genuinely fascinating (to us, anyway) that Ten Hag now occupies such a curious space in English football that there is absolutely no plausibly available Premier League managerial job too big or too small for him to pop up somewhere in the top 10 contenders. We’re weirdly certain he’s going to get one of these jobs sooner or later as well.

5=) Brendan Rodgers

We’re absolutely sure Brendan can see it happening. We can’t, though. He’s for sure on his way back to the Premier League somewhere, but we’d be somewhat staggered if it’s as big a gig as Newcastle.

4) Kieran McKenna

Really interesting. As a neutral observer, you’d really love to see a big club take a punt on a coach we have a strong suspicion could really fly if given that kind of chance. But you still wouldn’t necessarily want it to be your club taking said punt. It’s a massive gamble, and Newcastle aren’t currently in a position where massive gambles seem wise. Which is a shame, because we honestly think this could be amazing.

3) Xavi

Certainly ticks the ‘statement signing’ box if Newcastle did manage to entice the Barcelona legend back into the coaching game.

2) Oliver Glasner

Currently doing sterling work with Crystal Palace and it does feel like it’s probably a matter of time before someone with deeper pockets and grander ambitions wants to see what he’s made of.

1) Andoni Iraola

Currently doing sterling work with Bournemouth and it does feel like it’s probably a matter of time before someone with deeper pockets and grander ambitions wants to see what he’s made of.