Newcastle United’s new owners have held talks with former Roma manager Paulo Fonseca as they continue their search for Steve Bruce’s replacement.
Several candidates are being considered by the Saudi-backed consortium.
Former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe, ex-Borussia Dortmund coach Lucien Favre and Belgium boss Roberto Martinez have all been linked with the job.
Assistant coach Graeme Jones will lead Newcastle in an interim capacity for Saturday’s game at Crystal Palace.
Bruce left the club on Wednesday, with the new consortium, who took over the club two weeks ago, wanting to take their time to make the right appointment.
Portuguese manager Fonseca was in charge of Roma for two seasons between 2019 and 2021, leading the club to fifth place in Serie A in his first season and the Europa League semi-finals last term before being replaced by Jose Mourinho in the summer.
Previously with Shakhtar Donetsk, the 48-year-old almost joined Tottenham as their manager in June before the Premier League club changed tack, eventually appointing Nuno Espirito Santo.
Newcastle are yet to win in the Premier League this season and are second bottom of the table with three points.
Meanwhile, Saudi finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan has reacted to 18 Premier League clubs voting to temporarily block teams agreeing lucrative sponsorship deals linked to owners.
Newcastle voted against and Manchester City abstained, with both questioning the legality of the move which prevents the Magpies signing sponsorship deals with companies linked to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns 80% of the club.
Al-Jaadan told financial television channel CNBC that supporters could expect an “enhanced” club.
“If people are worried about competition amongst clubs, and particularly now we have invested in one of them, possibly it’s a good sign that there is a potential serious competitor coming their way, which is good for the whole football community,” he said.
Spanish football expert Guillem Balague told BBC Radio 5 Live Euro Leagues’ podcast: He did a really good job at Shakhtar Donetsk. He was three years following the platform given there and following the philosophy of the club; they have Brazilians, they want to play good football and defend well.
Fonseca won them trophies at a time when they were unsettled having left Donetsk and had to play around the Ukraine. He showed leadership, calmness in certain difficult situations and everyone followed him, they loved him there.
I think he has a lot of layers as a manager to be dealing with a club that right now needs completely different foundations of a winning team. They don’t have that by a long way.
