Former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson is among a raft of coaches who have expressed an interest in taking over the reins at the Newcastle Jets after the departure of Ernie Merrick.
Jets chief executive Lawrie McKinna confirmed on Tuesday that the decision to part ways with Merrick, who lead the Jets to the grand final 18 months ago, was based purely on performance and said he hoped to appoint a replacement within a fortnight.
"It's a results-driven business," McKinna said on Tuesday. We're sitting bottom of the league, copped a lot of goals over the last three or four weeks ... after the second goal (against Victory) you could see there was no fight there."
Owner Martin Lee was consulted, but the final decision was made by McKinna, who had recruited Merrick in 2017.
"It's not easy telling your mate that he's not got a job anymore, but it was a decision I thought that was for the betterment of the club to move forward and change the fortunes of the club at the moment," McKinna said.
The veteran coach was informed of the decision at a meeting with McKinna after he returned from Melbourne, where the Jets were thumped 4-0 by Victory to remain bottom of the ladder with two wins.
Jets' W-League coach Craig Deans and assistant Li Qiang will take charge in the interim.
McKinna and youth team coach Daniel McBreen were also on deck at training on Tuesday as was new strength and conditioning coach Brice Johnson.
Deans, who will continue coaching the W-League side, will be on the sidelines fort the visit by Sydney FC on Friday night.
McKinna said it was essential that the new coach fitted the culture in Newcastle could make an instant impact.
Best known for his stints in charge of England and Manchester City, Eriksson's last four jobs have all been in Asia.
"We want to bring in someone where people will go, 'he's got a CV, he's been a good coach, been a good player'... age doesn't matter, it's more on the person," he said. "After the third goal on Sunday night we had six CVs actually come through during the game which I think's quite rude but some agents were sending through CVs. Some of the names... I got ex-English manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson's CV sent through yesterday."
