Earlier this morning, both The Athletic and Sky Sports announced that Unai Emery was now the leading contender to become the new Newcastle United manager.
Barely an hour later, The Times‘ Martin Hardy and The Mail’s Craig Hope have taken things a step further.
They report that the Villarreal boss looks set to be appointed in the coming days, stating he’ll be in charge of Saturday’s trip to Brighton.
See both updates below, suggesting the Spaniard’s move to St James’ Park is now a formality:
The bookies are also on the verge of suspending bets on Emery to take over on Tyneside, with him now the 1/4 favourite for the job.
The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards insists there is still work to be done, claiming we need to agree personal terms and pay the £5m compensation fee.
Time will tell, but these are huge claims from Hardy and Hope – two journalists who don’t tend to tweet out such news unless they know it’s a formality.
It’ll be interesting to see how things progress in the coming hours, with Villarreal set to face Young Boys in the Champions League tonight…
One of two I really wanted as manager (Favre being the other)
Will be a good appointment.
Porkpie(Quote)