Sky Sports pundit Danny Murphy has urged Newcastle United to hire Phil Neville as their next manager.
Newcastle are now without a manager after Rafa Benitez’s contract expired on Sunday and the hunt is on for someone to succeed the popular Spaniard in the hotseat at St James’ Park.
While many names have already been linked with the Magpies vacancy, someone who could do a good job on Tyneside is England Women manager Neville, according to Murphy.
“Newcastle fans might laugh at this suggestion, but he’s currently doing a great job with the England Women’s team and that’s Phil Neville,” Murphy told talkSPORT.
“Someone who is young and hungry who has the capability that Phil has, is maybe an option they could go down.
“Phil’s a very bright coach, defensive minded in some respects, but he also knows how to play from the back.
“He went from a United winning team to an Everton team that was very much pragmatic, and adapted as a player to that.”
OPINION
Managing in international and club football are two completely different things, which is why you see some managers struggle when they change between the two. So to suggest that a manager could be a success if they swap international management in the women’s game to club management in the men’s game is quite bizarre. It’s not to say that one day there will be more business done between men and women’s teams, whether it’s managers or players that are on the move, it’s just that there is a vast enough difference between the two jobs as there is without throwing the men and women’s games into the equation. There are managers in women club football who have done great jobs in their field, so why isn’t Murphy suggesting them for the vacancy at Newcastle? Is Neville the only manager he knows off the back of the current Women’s World Cup? He’s also suggesting that Neville’s experience as a player for Manchester United and Everton could help him at Newcastle. Would it really? It’s yet another point that Murphy has made that has made this claim completely ridiculous.
