1. Joe Kinnear Himself?
We can almost hear the gasps of disapproval from here. In what would be a shockingly controversial decision, Joe Kinnear himself
is in the frame to take over from Pardew should he resign. Mike Ashley is said to regret handing Pardew an eight-year contract last September, and is no longer convinced the 51-year old is the right man to take the club forward. When Pardew first put pen to paper on the unprecedentedly-large contract last summer, the club were basking in the glow of finishing fifth and with it earning a spot in the Europa League. But the season that followed thereafter was largely disappointing and the club flirted with relegation from the top flight for the second time in four years. Ashley knows he can't just sack Pardew because he would then be liable to forking out on a mammoth compensation package. Instead, some claim, Kinnear's appointment as Director of Football is seen as a tactical ploy to unsettle the Magpies manager and force him into resigning, thereby forfeiting any compensation. And since Kinnear is virtually in charge of the club anyway, with Pardew being forced to report into him, it would make sense for Ashley to just hand the job to the man who managed the club between 2008-09 should Pardew quit.
An unpopular decision that would heap even more misery on Newcastle fans, it is one that seems inevitable at this stage.