Former West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic is interested in becoming Newcastle United boss if Rafael Benitez leaves, according to The Chronicle journalist Mark Douglas.
Douglas revealed the news on a Chronicle Q & A, claiming that the Croatian would be ready to step in should the current Magpies chief depart.
Benitez is set for talks with the club this week over his future, with the Spaniard now in the final two months of his contract.
Bilic obviously has top flight experience from his time with the Hammers, securing a seventh place finish in his debut season in east London.
OPINION
Obviously everyone on Tyneside will be keen for Benitez to stay, that’s their ideal scenario. However, if he does decide to leave then the club need to think about who could potentially replace him. However, is Bilic really the man to come in and improve on what Benitez has done? Probably not. He didn’t do a bad job at West Ham, but he wasn’t exactly stellar there either. He did magnificently with that seventh place finish in his first season and secured them European football – a tremendous achievement. However, that year was spent riding the wave of an all-time great season from Dimitri Payet. Once the Frenchman downed tools and returned to Marseille, Bilic was found out a bit. He couldn’t come up with a strategy to make the Hammers as effective as they were in his first campaign and things kind of fizzled out for him at West Ham. It’s unlikely, then, that he would be able to do what Benitez has done under the Mike Ashley regime. Still, hopefully we don’t have to find out how Bilic would do at St James’ Park.
