Following the departure of Steve Bruce, Newcastle United’s search for a new manager is entering its third week.
Former Arsenal boss Unai Emery had emerged as the ‘leading candidate’ yesterday, however, crunch-talks overnight have seemingly cooled the prospect of Emery leaving Villareal to join Newcastle with Eddie Howe now current bookies favourite to take charge at St James’s Park.
This indecision from Newcastle’s new owners has led Sinclair to be critical of the new ownership and believes that the managerial situation around the club could lead to relegation danger come May:
“Why would you get rid of Steve Bruce, I know fans are going to pile in on me, if you haven’t got somebody lined up?” Sinclair told talkSport.
“With the piracy rule which got dropped in the Kingdom, that seemed to happen overnight and I think it has caught the board by surprise and they’ve not got their ducks in a row.
“But, still, they listened to the fans and they listened to the media and they got rid of Steve Bruce.
“By the way, I saw him at the cricket in Dubai with his son Alex, he looks very relaxed and I’m pleased about that as he was in a bad situation, a horrendous situation that no one wants to be in.
“But Graeme Jones has gone in there, he can’t reinvent the wheel. You’re working with a group of players where you’ve got a bit of threat going forward but midfield wise and defensively, I don’t think they’re up to scratch to compete in the Premier League.
“It doesn’t matter who takes that side for the next two months, until they can start bringing players in with the money that they’ve got, I don’t think that they’re going to be competitive.”
When asked directly about Newcastle’s chances of survival in the Premier League this season, Sinclair believes it all depends on their recruitment in January.
“It depends who they recruit as a manager, director of football and players from the first of January.”
Newcastle’s next match is away to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday evening.
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