The four leading contenders to be next Newcastle United manager as fans wait for Steve Bruce decision

Steve Bruce remains Newcastle United head coach, despite a number of candidates linked with replacing him.
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A survey from the Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust showed 94.3% of members want the former Manchester United defender to depart.

It has been widely reported that Bruce will be sacked, however Amanda Staveley, fronting the new Saudi-backed ownership, is yet to make a decision.

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Speaking to the Gazette last week, she said: “At the moment what we can say is that we’re very aware we’re sitting in the relegation zone, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure the football club gets out of that position.

Former Borussia Dortmund manager Lucien Favre. (Photo by Clemens Bilan - Pool/Getty Images)Former Borussia Dortmund manager Lucien Favre. (Photo by Clemens Bilan - Pool/Getty Images)
Former Borussia Dortmund manager Lucien Favre. (Photo by Clemens Bilan - Pool/Getty Images)

"We’ll make the decisions that need to be made, but we’re going to do a full review of all the club, not just on the footballing side, but the commercial side (too), and once we’ve done that, we’ll come back to everybody.”

Here are the four leading candidates to succeed Bruce at St James’s Park, if and when United’s new owners decide to pull the trigger:

BRENDAN RODGERS – LEICESTER CITY

Managerial career so far

Rodgers started out as a coach at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho before stepping into full-time management with Watford.

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He then joined Reading but it was Swansea City where he began to develop a fine reputation as guided them to promotion to the Premier League.

Liverpool came calling, with the standout moment of Rodgers’ time at Anfield being the near title miss in the 2013/14 campaign. He was, however, crowned the LMA Manager of the Year.

A major trophy never did arrive until he joined Celtic. During his three years in Scotland, Rodgers lifted two Scottish Premierships, two Scottish Cups and three Scottish League Cups.

Since Rodgers arrived at Leicester, the club has regularly competed for Champions League football – albeit they have narrowly missed it in the last two campaigns.

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It was soon forgotten about last season however when the Foxes won the FA Cup for the first time in their history.

Style of play

Throughout his time at Leicester, Rodgers has regularly played with a 4-2-3-1 formation.

This often involves dominating possession whilst applying a high pressure on the opposition.

STEVEN GERRARD – RANGERS

Managerial career so far

After hanging his boots up on an illustrious career in 2016, Gerrard was handed a coaching role in Liverpool’s academy.

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Two years later, the Reds legend accepted his first managerial position with Rangers – and he’s never looked back.

Last season, Gerrard did not taste defeat in the league as he historically guided the Ibrox giants to their first Scottish Premiership title in 10 years

Unsurprisingly, he has already been tipped as a future Liverpool manager.

Style of play

Gerrard has alternated between using a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 at Rangers, aiming to implement an attacking, possession-based style of football.

FRANK LAMPARD – OUT OF WORK

Managerial career so far

Lampard was appointed manager of Derby County in 2018.

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He first hit the headlines when he was involved in the infamous ‘spygate’ incident, where a member of Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa’s backrooms staff was spotted spying on a Rams’ training session.

The former midfielder soon put that behind him though – beating Leeds in the Championship play-off semi-finals before losing the final at Wembley to Aston Villa.

After just one season at Pride Park, Lampard was poached by former club Chelsea, where he handed senior debuts to a number of academy players on his way to securing a top four fifinish.

Romain Abramovich spent over £200million in the following summer and his patience soon wore thin with Lampard. He was sacked with the Blues 9th in the Premier League table in January 2021.

Style of play

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Lampard said previously: “I want my team to play good football, but on the other side of that, I want them to be really aggressive and win the ball back.

"So I don’t like to try and put myself into one style of play. I think it is important to be adaptable in terms of systems.”

LUCIEN FAVRE – OUT OF WORK

Managerial career so far

After Favre’s playing career was cut short, the now 63-year-old went straight into coaching.

Record-breaking exploits with several lower league teams in Switzerland caught the attention of FC Zurich, where he soon won two league titles and the Swiss Cup in just four years.

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He journeyed over to Germany to join Hertha Berlin. In his second season, he brilliantly led them to a fourth-place finish. Hertha, however, sold some of their best players and Havre was sacked the following campaign after a slow start.

Eighteen months later, he return to management with relegation-threatened Borussia Monchengladbach. After retaining their Bundesliga status, he achieved two successive top-four finishes.

Favre swapped Germany for France with Nice and he historically led the Ligue 1 club to a third-place finish, which sealed Champions League football for the first time since the 1950s.

Following a successful two years, Favre took on his most high-profile job to date with Borussia Dortmund.

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In both of his full seasons at the Signal Iduna Park, he went to toe-to-toe with Bayern Munich for the title.

He was sacked in December last year following a string of poor results but overall has developed a track record of improving underperforming teams.

Favre was offered the Crystal Palace job in the summer – and is said to be ready for a return to the dugout.

The Allan-Saint-Maximin incident

According to reports in France, during Saint-Maximin’s first training session after joining from Nice, he caused Favre to storm out of a training session to demand he was sold immediately.

Style of play

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Favre is credited with playing attack-minded style. He is also known for promoting young players into the first team.

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