THE IDEAL Newcastle United saviour does not exist. To tick all of the boxes, he would need to be a Geordie like Alan Shearer, he would have to have the experience and wisdom of Sir Bobby Robson, the guise of Guus Hiddink, the public appeal of Martin O’Neill and the considerable diplomacy to fit between the urgent desire of the club captain and to respect what happened in Freddy Shepherd’s mind.

Confused? Then join the Newcastle United club. There are of course candidates in the media and silly ones available in the bookmakers’ odds.

It takes no genius to know that O’Neill would be a preferred choice if his wife were not ill and living so close to London. Friends of O’Neill have already intimated that Tyneside is a trip too far; Soho Square and the England job another prospect entirely.

So below him the usual candidates are listed: Sam Allardyce might this time be ready to depart Bolton — just give him a call, Freddy — though he wasn’t when asked 17 months ago. Stuart Pearce, who has done nothing wrong in his brief tenure at Manchester City (who indeed would have the passion and ambition to match that of St James’) would take some tempting. Presumably he would seek the long- term contract that might not be convenient to Shearer’s progression within the club.

Therefore it is possible that a foreigner might hold the key. Hiddink is used to relatively short spans of employment and, if he feels early in the process that England are looking closer to their own shores, then we already know that he would like to broaden his travels one more time, and certainly would enjoy the challenge of licking an English club into shape. He might even be content to do it within a three-year framework, to build up a legacy, and to make Shearer his pupil, so that when the legacy is handed over, it is in suitably informed hands.

Those who have seen Hiddink in various environments — at Real Madrid, with the Dutch national press on his back and in Seoul — appreciate that this is a consummate communicator. He probably does not speak Geordie, but his English is better than that of some of the Englishmen coaching in the Premiership.

Besides, his discipline, his manner of putting across tactics, his demands that a player is first and foremost fit and second willing to give his all, would survive brilliantly in the firmament of Newcastle.

We have seen him take Koreans from college boys to World Cup semi-finalists, take them into a training camp that he demanded and designed, and seen him cut through barriers of language and culture so that those who began suspicious of him ended up showering him with more riches than he had imagined or wanted.

Shepherd insists that this time he will take his time to get the appointment right. That would certainly be a first, but, while he waits, do not be surprised if the FA gets to Hiddink first.

Other foreigners? Luiz Felipe Scolari and Ottmar Hitzfeld, men with the highest pedigree abroad but with little grasp of the English language, sound ready, willing and able to make the transition. Paul Le Guen, who built the nucleus of the Lyon team that Gérard Houllier has taken on this season, has the youth and the competence to join the club of Frenchmen resident in this country.

If the Newcastle board were to retreat to England, then many would ask what Paul Jewell needs to do to attract a bigger club after his success at Wigan, where his thirst for brave, attacking football has to be put on his CV. There again, he has the chairman from heaven; Newcastle have one from the other place.

And all the while any applicant with half an eye for the situation at Newcastle would know that personal ambitions would have to be set aside for the long-term succession that, somehow, is intended for the current centre-forward.

It isn’t clear thinking, it is typical Newcastle United and the fans have already had their fervent say in it. Apparently they do not want Sven-Göran Eriksson: he might be too indiscreet, too expensive, and bring too much baggage. O’Neill is top of their wish list too, but in a phrase borrowed from Franz Beckenbauer when he visited London last week: “This is not a wish concert, it is reality.”

A pity, that, because somewhere in the heart of the Geordies there probably lies the hope that Sir Alex Ferguson would be shown the door at Old Trafford after 20 years by the Glazer family of Florida.

Newcastle supporters have nothing but good to say about a knighted manager merely in his 60s. They have been there once, some wish it had never ended, and the only problem with Ferguson would be the accent.

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