Benitez, Jol or Martinez?

In the aftermath of Newcastle's stunning defeat to Sunderland in the Tyne Wear derby the spotlight is well and truly on Alan Pardew. The derby defeat coupled with our overall poor season means the heat is really going to be turned up on Pardew who now must get a reaction out of his squad starting this weekend. Only a strong end to the season and more points on the board will give Pardew a chance of surviving in his job this summer.

If Pardew is to lose his job this summer who are the likely candidates to take over the reins at St James?  We all know Newcastle are ran a little differently in that Mike Ashley has his set structure at the club - we have a vision of how we want out club to be ran and any new manager would have to agree to work under these strict rules. As we saw Kevin Keegan was not willing to work this way and for the second time he left the club.

Like most Newcastle fans I am very realistic and understand the limitations of our club in terms of attracting players and coaches. When looking at potential replacements for Pardew we can obviously rule out any of the top established managers and also the likes of Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, Frank De Boer, or Manuel Pellegrini.

For me we can look closer to home as I believe there is quality in our own Premier League. Let me look at three possible candidates.

Roberto Martinez does a good job at Wigan and has recently been linked with the Liverpool and Aston Villa. Credit to Martinez as he does continue to keep Wigan in the Premier league where they are punching well above their weight. Wigan play some nice football, yet always seem to be involved in a relegation battle every year. I worry about him dealing with top players, bigger budgets and the expectation which comes with managing a club like Newcastle United.

Martin Jol is a experienced Premier league manager who has also worked on the continent with Hamburg SV and the Mighty Ajax. Currently working with Fulham, Jol has done a great job with a small club settled mid-table in the Premier league. I am a big fan of Jol and think he ticks a lot of boxes in term of what I want in a team manager. Fulham are known as a side who play football the right way with players who have quality on the ball - Berbatov and Dembele for example, yet Jol also wants his teams to remain solid and hard to beat.

 I feel Jol has ambitions to compete at a higher level than what is possible with a club like Fulham. Just a few years back Martin led Spurs to two top 5 finishes before Gareth Bale arrived and took Spurs to another level. His side played great football, full of young quality players and actually reminded me a lot of the young guns side assembled at NUFC by Sir Bobby Robson.

Newcastle could be a club who offer Jol the chance to get back amongst the top 6 and I would very much welcome him to the St James hot seat and believe he would handle the job and take NUFC to the next level.

The next candidate and ectually my preferred choice for the job is a little controversial. If Mike Ashley is to fire Alan Pardew this summer I would love to see him bring in Rafa Benitez. The currently Chelsea "interim' manager is being given a rough time by the Stamford bridge faithful yet is still doing a solid job in difficult circumstances and looks on course to finish in the top 4 and win the Europa League.

Benitez is a vastly experienced tactician who's reading of the game cannot be questioned. During him time with Valencia he won the Championship twice and won the UEFA cup which is a massive achievement in a league which contains Barcelona and Real Madrid and it will be a long time before we see this happen again in Spain. Following this sucess he joined Liverpool where again he delivered sucess at the highest level with a Champions league victory on a night no football fan will ever forget. Consistent finished in the top 4 and victories in the domestic cup competition's were a key fixture during Rafa's time with Liverpool.

If Newcastle could bring in Benitez it would be a major coup for the club. This could be the perfect situation for both Rafa and our club as we both crave a return to the top table of English and European football.

I have heard people band around names like Gus Poyet, Roberto Di Matteo and Michael Laudrup but i just do not see any of these managers being a step in the right direction or really having the quality to be an upgrade from Alan Pardew.

As we know however football is a funny old game and a few years back we would have loved Martin O'Neill to lead club yet now he is sitting on the managerial scrap heap having been replaced by some young Italian upstart!

i have the feeling we will see big changes at the club in the summer. Players are certain to leave yet the biggest decision the board have to make it whether Alan Pardew is the man to take our club forward or if he has taken us as far as he can.