Newcastle fans had a miserable start to their week after the news broke that manager Rafael Benitez was leaving the club, with both parties unable to come to an agreement on a new deal for the Spaniard.
While the former Liverpool and Chelsea boss was unable to save the Geordies from relegation upon taking over in 2016, he guided them back into the Premier League at the first attempt and kept them well clear of the drop zone in the subsequent two seasons in the top flight.
Benitez had become a firm fans’ favourite at St James’ Park and news of his departure has not gone down well with Newcastle supporters who have long been opposed to Mike Ashley’s ownership.
With Newcastle looking for their 11th manager (including caretakers) since Ashley bought the club in 2007, here are the bookies’ main contenders to take the managerial reins on Tyneside:
Mikel Arteta (8/1 with Boylesports and Coral)
The Spaniard, who previously played with Everton and Arsenal, is awaiting his first managerial job, having been assistant coach to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City since 2016. He took charge of the Premier League champions for one game last September, when Guardiola was serving a touchline ban, but that ended in a 2-1 home defeat to Lyon in the Champions League.
Arteta had been heavily linked with the Arsenal job last year after his former manager Arsene Wenger left the club, only for Unai Emery to be chosen. While the 37-year-old is joint favourite for the job and could be eager to get his break as a manager, Newcastle might not be the easiest club with which to begin.
Phil Neville (33/1 with William Hill)
The former Manchester United player is currently doing an impressive job with England’s women’s team, guiding them to the quarter-finals of the World Cup with four wins from four. He has won 14 of his 21 matches in charge of the Lionesses so far and led them to victory in the SheBelieves Cup earlier this year.
Neville has not yet been a head coach in the men’s game. He has held coaching positions at Manchester United and Salford City, while he was assistant coach at Valencia under his brother Gary as well as Nuno Espirito Santo. His stock is steadily rising, though, during his tenure with the England ladies.
Avram Grant (12/1 with Betfair and Paddy Power)
The 64-year-old Israeli has plentiful experience of English football, having previously managed Chelsea, Portsmouth and West Ham. He guided the former to the 2008 Champions League final and took Pompey to the 2010 FA Cup final against the odds. However, that season ended in relegation, a fate he also suffered a year later with the Hammers, who unlike Portsmouth were not in financial turmoil.
Sky Sports News had reported that Grant, currently a technical advisor at North East United in India, is under consideration for the vacant Newcastle job. In 134 previous games managing in England, he has won 61 (45.5% of total), although more than half of those were with Chelsea.
Mark Hughes (33/1 with William Hill)
The Welshman has done the rounds in the Premier League, having already managed Blackburn, Manchester City, Fulham, QPR, Stoke and Southampton in the division. While he has never been relegated as a manager, Stoke went down in May 2018 two months after he was sacked, while Southampton were in the drop zone when he was given the chop last December, having won only once in 16 games up to that point.
The manner of those two sackings has perhaps discoloured a managerial career in which he took Stoke to three consecutive top half finishes, came sixth with Blackburn, oversaw the embryonic days of Man City’s Abu Dhabi ownership and almost took unfancied Wales to a 16-team Euro 2004.
Daniel Farke (25/1 with SkyBet)
The German manager is riding the crest of a wave after winning the Championship last season with Norwich, ending the Canaries’ three-year absence from the Premier League. It was a most unexpected triumph, with the Norfolk club finishing 14th the previous year, but Farke’s inspirational demeanour and possession-based style of football transformed their fortunes.
The 42-year-old has also proven a very canny operator in the transfer market, bringing in the likes of Emi Buendia, Moritz Leitner and Temmu Pukki on free transfers to Norwich. The latter was the Championship’s top scorer last season and a charismatic figure like Farke would likely go down a treat with Newcastle fans.
Claude Puel (50/1 with Betfair and Paddy Power)
The Frenchman’s managerial career has been a rather polarised one thus far. His two previous stints in England with Southampton and Leicester did not end well, with the 57-year-old failing to win over fans with his softly spoken demeanour. He enraged Foxes supporters by dropping Jamie Vardy last season before his sacking in February.
Although his conservative managerial style has not yielded success in England, it worked wonders in his homeland, where he won a Ligue 1 title with Monaco and took Lille and Lyon to their best-ever Champions League finishes (last 16 and semi-finals respectively). Also, he finished eighth with Southampton two years ago and they have struggled since.
Sean Dyche (11/1 with UNIBET and 888sport)
The 47-year-old with the gravelly voice has been in charge of Burnley since October 2012, twice being promoted in that time and now preparing to take them into a fourth consecutive Premier League season. The Clarets’ seventh-place finish in 2018 was an exceptional achievement for a team with one of the lowest budgets in the top flight.
Dyche is a no-frills pioneer of 4-4-2 who favours pragmatism over artisanship and he may seek a fresh challenge after a long stint at Turf Moor. However, his type of old school approach might not please Newcastle supporters, who derided Sam Allardyce for something similar.
Jose Mourinho (10/1 with Betfair and Paddy Power)
The outspoken Portuguese manager is currently among the favourites to take over from Benitez, who like Mourinho has also managed Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. Last August, the former Manchester United boss said that he liked going to Newcastle and he has close links with one of the city’s favourite sons, having worked under the late Bobby Robson at Barcelona.
Mourinho would bring a prolonged track record of success to Tyneside if given the job, but Newcastle supporters may not be overly enthused by a manager with a reputation for pragmatic football and a habit of falling out with players.
Michael Appleton (33/1 with SkyBet and Betway)
The 43-year-old has done the rounds in the Football League, managing Portsmouth, Blackpool, Blackburn and Oxford. He has taken charge of West Brom and Leicester in the Premier League on a caretaker basis, but the sum of those stints is three games, having been temporarily elevated from assistant coach positions at both clubs.
Appleton returned to the Baggies as assistant to James Shan towards the end of last season, but with Slaven Bilic now in charge at The Hawthorns, he might be tempted elsewhere. However, for a manager whose greatest success was promotion to League One and an eighth-place finish at that level with Oxford, the step up to Newcastle could be a massive one.
Anthony Hudson (16/1 with William Hill)
The 38-year-old is one of the more obscure names among the bookies’ 20 likeliest candidates. Aside from 18 games in charge of Newport County in 2011, his entire managerial career has been outside of Europe. He coached the national teams of Bahrain and New Zealand and was most recently in charge of Colorado Rapids in the MLS.
His record with the Denver-based club was less than stellar, with 28 defeats from 46 matches (including a nine-game losing streak in 2018) and only eight wins. Despite being only 38, he has been in management for more than a decade, having coached in the U.S. Second Division at the tender age of 27.
Jose Gomes (25/1 with SkyBet)
The 48-year-old took charge of Reading just before Christmas, his first job in English football after numerous gigs in his homeland Portugal, Hungary and the Middle East. He managed to prevent the Royals from being relegated to League One, winning six of his 24 league games in charge so far.
Gomes has been commended by Reading supporters for his aesthetically pleasing brand of football and urgency to get the ball forward, although they may well have hoped for a higher league finish than 20th. Going straight from the lower end of the Championship to an ambitious mid-table Premier League club could be an enormous and risky leap.
Gennaro Gattuso (33/1 with Betfair and Paddy Power)
The Italian had a cult reputation in his playing days as a combative midfielder and won two Champions Leagues with AC Milan and the World Cup with Italy. He returned to the San Siro club as manager in November 2017 before leaving at the end of last season after they missed out on the Champions League places.
Milan’s fifth-place finish under Gattuso was still their highest in six years and his 48.19% win percentage was respectable, while his firebrand nature (he once slapped his assistant during a match) should endear himself to a passionate Tyneside faithful. Also, after managing Milan, he shouldn’t be fazed by a club of Newcastle’s high stature.
Claudio Ranieri (12/1 with Betfair and Paddy Power)
The affable Italian will forever be known for guiding Leicester to the Premier League title three years ago, although he was sacked by the Foxes just nine months later and he lasted only three and a half months at Fulham last season. However, despite subsequently being unable to get Roma into the Champions League, his efforts were appreciated by the club’s fans.
The 67-year-old knows the Premier League very well and has taken charge of major clubs such as Juventus, Roma, Chelsea, Valencia and Atletico Madrid. His friendly nature should help to win over Newcastle fans quickly and he is known for fostering an indomitable team spirit, as he sensationally demonstrated at Leicester.
Thierry Henry (33/1 with SkyBet, Betfred and Betway)
The Frenchman was widely regarded as one of the world’s best players in his prime, although his transition into management has not been smooth. While he was involved in Roberto Martinez’s backroom team as Belgium finished third at the 2018 World Cup, a subsequent spell in charge of Monaco was brief and disastrous.
Three months and 20 games with the club yielded only four wins and they were second bottom of Ligue 1 at the time of his sacking. He was working with a poor squad, though, so the jury remains out on Henry’s managerial capabilities.
Jurgen Klinsmann (25/1 with SkyBet and Betway)
The former Tottenham player has proven his worth as an international manager, taking over a Germany team in turmoil in 2004 and getting them to the World Cup semi-finals two years later. He also brought USA to the World Cup knockout rounds in 2014, where they bowed out respectably against Belgium.
However, he has not worked in management since being sacked by USA in November 2016. Also, his only managerial stint at club level was a decade ago with Bayern Munich, where failure to win the Bundesliga led to his sacking after less than a full season. A replication of his 55.17% win ratio with the Bavarians could be very well received on Tyneside, though.
David Moyes (8/1 with Ladbrokes, Coral and Boylesports)
The man hailed as ‘The Chosen One’ when he succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United has seen his stock plummet in the subsequent six years, an unsuccessful stint at Old Trafford followed by unimpressive reigns at Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham.
While Newcastle fans no doubt enjoyed watching Sunderland exit the Premier League on his watch, they might not be as enthusiastic about seeing him at St James’ Park. However, his largely excellent 11 years at Everton deserve to be recalled in assessing him as a candidate, and he is joint favourite with Arteta to take charge at Newcastle.
Steve Bruce (25/1 with Boylesports)
His status as a boyhood Newcastle fan should certainly earn him clout with the Tyneside faithful, even if he did take charge at Sunderland for two and a half years a decade ago. Bruce has not managed in the Premier League since Hull’s relegation in 2015, although he has been promoted to the division four times in his managerial career.
The 60-year-old finished 12th in the Championship with Sheffield Wednesday last season, four places higher than when he took charge in February. Having twice turned down the vacant Newcastle manager’s job in the past, though, the club could be reluctant to offer him another chance.
Eddie Howe (33/1 with William Hill, Betfair and Paddy Power)
The longest-serving manager in the Premier League has transformed Bournemouth from a League One outfit to a stable, free-flowing top flight club. He has achieved a sense of harmony and steady progress that Newcastle fans could only dream of and his commitment to an adventurous style of play is also likely to be well received by Geordies supporters.
The St James’ Park vacancy could also appeal to Howe, who might seek a new challenge after seven years on the south coast and who now has ample Premier League experience to feel ready for a club of Newcastle’s stature and ambition.
Chris Hughton (14/1 with William Hill, Betfair and Paddy Power)
The former Newcastle manager is available again after being dismissed by Brighton last month following the Seagulls’ narrow escape from relegation. He took the Geordies up from the Championship at the first attempt in 2010 and had guided them to mid-table halfway through the following season, when his shock sacking infuriated players, club legends and fans.
A similar reaction ensued in May when Hughton was sacked by Brighton, where he enjoys iconic status for getting the club into the Premier League and keeping them there. A genial character with a knack for clever signings, he should be welcomed back warmly on Tyneside, although he might not be overly keen on working under Ashley again.
Garry Monk (20/1 with Betfair and Paddy Power)
It has only been five years since he was given his first full-time managerial job, yet he has already been through four clubs and is looking for a fifth after being sacked by Birmingham last week. He has already racked up 215 games in management and has a reasonable win ratio of 39.1%, but he has not managed in the Premier League since December 2015.
Also, Monk has not been in a job for longer than 15 months since his initial gig at Swansea. Were he to go to Newcastle, he could be paying very close attention to the possible takeover situation, having been forced to operate under severe constraints at Birmingham.