‘Nobody jumps out at me’ - Danny Murphy doesn’t believe there is an ‘obvious candidate’ to replace Steve Bruce at Newcastle United as speculation on his future intensifies

Speculation that this may be the end of Bruce’s spell as Newcastle manager has been growing ever since the Saudi-led takeover of the club was confirmed on Thursday evening.

Huge names like Antonio Conte, Zinedine Zidane and Frank Lampard have all been linked with becoming Newcastle’s new manager, however, Murphy believes that the new owners at St James’s Park must not make any rash decisions that may impact Newcastle’s ‘precarious’ current position:

“You’ve got to be careful to not try and run before you can walk.

“The situation Newcastle are in now is precarious. They’ve got a manager, at the moment, in charge who has been there and done it at the lower echelons of the Premier League and has dealt with that [relegation] scenario before and has done it at Newcastle.” Murphy told talkSport.

“Is there somebody out there who they can bring in that is going to be more equipped for the job than Steve Bruce? That is ultimately the question.”

Murphy, however, did admit that he thinks Bruce’s time at Newcastle is almost up - but the former-Liverpool midfielder is unsure about who the next person in charge at St James’s Park could be:

“I think they will get rid because that’s what the fans want and they’re trying to keep everybody happy at the moment following the takeover.

“So who do they get in? There’s no obvious candidate to come in for a relegation battle.

“There’s a different conversation if you’re asking me ‘are there managers out there capable of working with new players, spending money and competing?’ Of course there are, there are lots of good, top managers out there.

“But coming into the Premier League, if you haven’t been in it before, into a relegation battle and understanding how to win games that aren’t always going to be free-flowing or easy on the eye, who’s out there more equipped than Bruce at the moment?

“That’s a difficult one, nobody jumps out at me.”