Carver: Newcastle United must appoint new coach quickly

Managing director Lee Charnley has been tasked by club owner Mike Ashley with finding Alan Pardew’s successor.

Carver – himself keen to take the job on full-time – is in interim charge.

But the 49-year-old feels there is a danger of the dressing room becoming “unsettled” if the search for a head coach drags on.

Former Tottenham Hotspur coach Tim Sherwood is the new bookmakers’ favourite for the job, though Remi Garde is a close second in the odds.

Carver, likely to also be in charge for next weekend’s home game against Southampton, hopes the club will swiftly conclude its search – or put him in interim charge for the rest of the campaign.

“The dressing room is settled at the moment,” said Carver.

“But the longer it goes on it can become unsettled. I’ve been in this situation before and it can effect people.

“You can’t just let it drift. You have to make a decision.”

Carver put himself forward for the post last week in a conversation with Charnley.

“When I had that conversation with Lee, I said I want to throw my hat in the ring, you want the right coach, you can’t allow this to go on and on and on,” said Carver.

“They understand that. But what they’re not going to do and rightly so is make a rash decision, and say ‘we’ll take him’.

“They need think time and I understand that. He trusts me to do the job while they can have their thinking time and do their due diligence. I understand that.”

One option would be for Charnley to put Carver in charge until the summer, when a full-time appointment would be made.

A number of prospective candidates, including Ajax’s Frank de Boer and St Etienne’s Christophe Galtier, are NOT prepared to leave their clubs midway through a season.

“If they said to me take it to the end of the season, I’d be prepared to do the job, no danger of that,” said Carver.

“I have enough belief in myself and enough time until the end of the season that they’d say to me at the end of the season you’ve done a good job, keep the job.”

Asked about those candidates, among them Derby County head coach Steve McClaren, who have ruled themselves out of the running, Carver added: “They might be in a better situation – I don’t know what they’re thinking.”