Newcastle to stick with John Carver while manager hunt continues

Alan Shearer shakes hands with a fan at Monday's match between AFC Wimbledon and Liverpool and while on duty for the BBC. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

Newcastle United will take their time over appointing a manager and John Carver may remain in caretaker charge for not only Saturday’s trip to Chelsea but also the home game against Southampton the following week.

Although Newcastle remain interested in Rémi Garde and are understood to have made contact with the former Lyon manager and Arsenal defensive midfielder, other candidates are being considered.

It seems certain Alan Pardew’s successor will be from overseas after Steve McClaren pledged his loyalty to Derby County. Newcastle regarded the former England and Middlesbrough manager as a strong contender but McClaren’s comments seem to have ruled out any possibility of his re-locating to Tyneside.

The BBC pundit and former Newcastle caretaker-manager Alan Shearer has hinted that a “small part” of him wonders whether Mike Ashley, the club’s owner, had encouraged Pardew to depart for Crystal Palace after telling him he would shortly be putting up the “sold” signs at St James’ Park.

Although this theory is contradicted by emphatic denials from the club that Ashley, who recently said he would not consider selling until the summer of 2016 at the earliest, is preparing for a sale, Shearer does not seem entirely convinced.

“I don’t know what [Ashley’s intentions for the club are] because he never tells us anything,” he said during a BBC interview. “He doesn’t speak to anyone but there’s a small part of me that thinks he might have given Alan Pardew a nod.”

Quite apart from Newcastle’s insistence that Ashley’s statement about remaining in control for at least 18 months remains accurate, offloading a football clubs is – as Aston Villa’s owner, Randy Lerner, has discovered – difficult.

There are other plausible explanations behind Pardew’s departure. “It did make me laugh when I heard people saying that Alan wouldn’t leave Newcastle to go to Crystal Palace,” Shearer said. “There’s a million reasons why Alan would leave Newcastle to go to Crystal Palace: he’d be on a better salary at a club where the fans would want him, he would buy and sell the players he wanted. There’s three very good reasons to start with. That’s where Newcastle are as a club, I’m afraid. Not good news but we’re used to that.”