Terry Venables has confirmed that he has held talks with Newcastle United about the managerial vacancy at St James Park.
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The club are looking for an interim manager to step in and fill the void left by Kevin Keegan, who left the club at the beginning of this month.
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley is in the process of trying to sell the Premier League club, which has meant any permanent appointment of Keegan’s successor has not been possible.
Newcastle suffered their fourth defeat in a row on Wednesday evening as they lost at home to Tottenham in the Carling Cup and Ashley has turned to Venables to guide them through an uncertain period.
“I can confirm I met Newcastle representatives,” Venables told The Sun.
“Those talks will continue in the morning [Thursday] when, hopefully, I can give them a final decision.”
He made his name in management with spells at Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers before being appointed coach at Barcelona.
He guided the club to a Spanish League title, a League Cup win and a European Cup final – which they lost on penalties to Steaua Bucharest – before being sacked in September 1987.
He took over at Tottenham later that year and won the FA Cup with the club in 1991 before taking a role upstairs as chief executive at White Hart Lane as Sir Alan Sugar took over the club. However, an acrimonious exit in November 1993, saw the end up in the High Court.
After a two-year spell as England coach which culminated in reaching the semi-finals of Euro 96, he spent time at Portsmouth and failed in his attempts to lead Australia to qualification for the 1998 World Cup.
In 2002, Venables was called in by Boro chairman Steve Gibson to help under-fire boss Bryan Robson and he succeeded in guiding them from second bottom into mid-table.
The 64-year-old Venables has been out of work for nearly a year after he was sacked as assistant to former England coach Steve McClaren in November 2007.
