NOT THE POST

Tony snubs Newcastle job over fears Ashley will help pick the team

TONY PULIS has rejected the chance to become Newcastle United manager after be c o mi n g concerned that the f i rst team would be selected by committee.

The former Stoke and Crystal Palace manager, who is also wanted by West Brom, was informed by his advisers that intermediaries representing Newcastle had been in contact.

But Sportsmail understands Pulis told his advisers to terminate discussions when he became worried controversial club owner Mike Ashley and head scout Graham Carr would want a say in team selection.

Ashley and Carr are already known to control the recruitment of players at the club; a situation Alan Pardew reluctantly accepted and a factor in his decision to accept an offer from Crystal Palace to become their new manager.

Pulis would not have accepted even that. Indeed, he has made it clear to West Brom that only if he is given sole charge of the club will he consider succeeding Alan Irvine, who was dismissed as head coach at The Hawthorns on Monday.

But the idea that Ashley and Carr could also interfere in team matters is understood to have alarmed Pulis, to say the least.

Last season’s LMA Manager Of The Year is said to have told his

“Already known to control the recruitment of players there”

representatives to cease any further discussions.

Newcastle were unavailable for comment when contacted by Sportsmail yesterday.

Now a l awyer and an agent representing 56-year-old Pulis have opened discussions with West Brom although the Welshman sent them in with strict instructions not to agree to a position that fits into the current management structure of the struggling Premier League club.

Pulis has no interest in allowing a technical director to recruit his players when he prefers to trust his own judgment.

It was over recruitment that he parted company with Palace in the summer and it is an area in which he will not compromise.

On Tyneside yesterday, outgoing Newcastle boss Pardew escaped the glare of the assembled media by donning a purple LA Dodgers cap and black leather jacket as his disguise to slip across half a mile of training pitches and exits via the club’s academy for one final time.

It was a chance for him to say his goodbyes. He will travel today to Crystal Palace, where a £2million salary and a £1m bonus for Premier League survival awaits.

But for Newcastle, it is another beginning. Yesterday, caretaker boss John Carver addressed the club’s senior players. Their mood is good. They are saddened but accepting of Pardew’s choice.

One point of relief and levity were the reports, strongly denied by Newcastle, that skipper Fabricio Coloccini was set to be appointed manager — his team-mates are already calling him ‘gaffer’.

Carver and coach Steve Stone — unaware of Pardew’s defection until Monday — will get the chance to impress over the next two matches, a home game with Burnley and the FA Cup tie at Leicester.

Carver, who is a Geordie and a disciple of the late Sir Bobby Robson, would love to manage his hometown club. As would two other natives of the North-East, Steve Bruce and Lee Clark.

The contact made with Pulis appears a forlorn hope. And that, says former Newcastle favourite Steve Howey, i s why Pardew’s successor must enter the role having already ceded some control to a hierarchy who identify signings.

‘It’s no good going into the job if you think you’re going to get the opportunity to do your own thing,’ said Howey.

‘That’s why I think Alan did a very good job. He made it work. Some fans think he was just a puppet for Mike Ashley. But how many of us would go storming into our boss’s office shouting the odds i f we weren’t happy about something?

‘Alan was good at playing that role and was a politician at times. He was there for four years but I think he had enough of some of the conditions he worked under and of the abuse from fans.

‘I thought it was a disgrace when it affected his family.

‘Some people think things are going to suddenly change at the club because he has gone and I understand some of the reasons why a lot of fans didn’t like him.

‘But, for me, he did a good job and that might be realised in time.’

Howey is right. Pardew leaving does not herald a brilliant new dawn at St James’ Park.

There is the chance for a new man to inject new ideas, but he will still be Ashley’s man, a point which some of the club’s supporters always held against Pardew.

Howey believes the owner will reveal a lot about his aspirations for the club with this appointment.

‘It will be interesting to see who Ashley gets,’ said the f ormer England defender.

‘It will either show great ambition to go out and pay money for a highprofile name, or it could be an appointment which doesn’t excite the fans or capture the imagination.

‘Looking at the list of names linked so far, there is no one who really stands out.’

Perhaps that is why Newcastle will take their time. Any unveiling is not expected until next week at the earliest but work is underway to draw up a shortlist.

Making things work is what it is all about as manager of Newcastle. Pardew did.

But, after four years, he had enough. Now it’s the turn of someone else to play Magpie mediator.