There needs to be a rabbit. A flipping huge, great rabbit that Mike Ashley will be producing from his hat sometime soon if his club, and his regime, are to emerge from this fiasco with any shred of credibility intact.

Ashley, the arch-populist with his replica shirt and self-serving appearances amid the Toon Army in the away end, may believe that he has given Newcastle United supporters exactly what they wanted by agreeing to the sudden exit of Sam Allardyce, but unless he has a plan of precise execution and devilish cunning involving an equally swift replacement, do not believe a word of it.

Newcastle fans want success and good football, yes, neither of which Allardyce appeared close to achieving during his brief time at St James’ Park. More than that, though, they crave stability. Harry Redknapp is not the half of it. They wish for a club such as those marshalled by Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsène Wenger, who know where they are heading and have a clear idea of the route.

If Ashley cannot parade Allardyce’s successor in time for the match with Manchester United on Saturday, and certainly the FA Cup third-round replay with Stoke City on Wednesday, this is amateur night at the Roxy, a shambles that the locals are only too familiar with, having endured the wilderness years of rule by Freddy Shepherd.

The word of Chris Mort, the chairman and public face of the Ashley administration, will certainly not survive Allardyce’s departure if any details emerge to suggest that the decision was not as mutual as the club would have their public believe.

Mort has been briefing all within listening distance for several weeks that the new owner does not believe in knee-jerk management and would not remove Allardyce, short-term. Before the FA Cup tie with Stoke at the Britannia Stadium, he told one reporter that Allardyce would definitely be in charge for the Manchester United fixture, and beyond. He was dismissing talk of Alan Shearer’s candidacy yesterday, but on previous form the locals can be forgiven if that does not entirely rule him out.

Mort’s only mitigation will be if Allardyce made the first move for the door. Even then, to be caught by surprise at such a crucial stage in the season is a serious failing at executive level.

Those who spoke to Allardyce yesterday morning vouch that he was not talking like a man who believed that he was in his last day of employment, or was planning to act in any way that would precipitate such an event, so something has gone seriously awry.

After all, in the summer, he complained privately that he found Ashley hard to contact regarding transfer business, yet also acknowledged that, when they did speak, even in the bad times, the owner was very supportive.

The pair went out for a beer together after the recent match with Arsenal, while Ashley’s attitude to speculation about Allardyce’s future was to instruct his manager not to listen to the rumours.

The phrase, “mutual consent”, can hide a multitude of sins. Hardly anyone gets the bullet these days. The old-fashioned sacking is far too brutal for many image-conscious football clubs, so we are led to believe that the employee and his employers sit around the table like gentlemen, at which point everybody decides, in a most convenient fashion, that it would be a capital idea if the manager slung his hook.

Sort of: “Why don’t you get lost?” “Well, I don’t mind if I do.”

Chelsea claim to have parted company with José Mourinho by this process, as did Bolton Wanderers with Sammy Lee. Martin Jol went a stage farther at Tottenham Hotspur and resigned. No doubt the board wishes it had known that this manoeuvre was coming in August; it would have saved them the embarrassment of getting caught out with Juande Ramos in Seville.

Even so, Allardyce’s behaviour yesterday was not that of a man who was on his way to collect his P45. He gave a press conference at lunchtime, with no mention of an impending upheaval, and is believed to have attended a meeting later over strategy in the January transfer window.

Whether those discussions took a negative turn, bringing Allardyce’s tenure at the club to a premature conclusion, is not known.

Certainly, the manager wanted funds to improve his team for the second half of the season and, if this request was refused, may have taken it as an implicit lack of support, an indication that he was on his way out and would be allowed only to limp to the end of the season — a dead man walking, as Rafael Benítez, the similarly threatened Liverpool manager, would have it — when he would be replaced by a manager of Ashley’s choosing.

Perhaps, fearing such a future, a target for supporters who have become increasingly disillusioned with ordinary results and a dull style of play, Allardyce preferred to leave with dignity intact.

He will certainly have the sympathy of many neutrals, who will view his departure as further evidence of Newcastle as a nuthouse, a club in permanent turmoil, ungoverned by reason and therefore ungovernable.

Ashley must ultimately take responsibility for this dismal affair. In recent weeks, he has attempted to give the impression that his command would be different. The previous chairman may have made a habit of poorly timed firings — managers sacked the wrong side of the transfer window a speciality — but the new men were made of smarter stuff. They were patient, they were loyal, they were the safe pair of hands that Newcastle needed.

And then this. Now it all looks so hokey. Newcastle have an owner who struts about in a black-and-white shirt, pretending to be one of the lads, but reacts to pressure with all the wit of an irate caller to a radio phone-in.

His first task will be to convince Allardyce’s successor that he is more than an attention-seeking eccentric, who makes decisions having taken the temperature around the tea bar at the back of the main stand.

In one way, though, Ashley has performed the impossible. In losing Allardyce at this stage in the season, he has made Newcastle look an even worse bet than they were under Shepherd.

Leading contenders

Harry Redknapp The outstanding English candidate and deserves a crack at a big club after working miracles at Portsmouth. But wasn’t the same said about Allardyce last May?

Alan Shearer The long-time bookmakers’ favourite, available and a Geordie. In many ways, the obvious candidate to succeed an unpopular manager, but while his appointment would ensure long-term support, he has no experience.

José Mourinho Sir Bobby Robson tried to lure the “Special One” to St James’ Park as his assistant before Mourinho’s success at Chelsea. The arrival of such a stellar name would justify Sam Allardyce’s departure, even if his pragmatic tactics would not.

Martin Jol Long before his takeover at St James’ Park, Mike Ashley was a regular visitor to Tottenham Hotspur and has a close friendship with Paul Kemsley, the former Spurs director. Ashley is known to be an admirer of Jol.

Jürgen Klinsmann Thought to be eager to work in Europe after his extended sabbatical in California and has been receiving admiring glances from Liverpool, but the former Spurs striker has no experience of club management.

Odds:

4-7 Harry Redknapp

9-2 Alan Shearer

9-1 Mark Hughes

10-1 Martin Jol

12-1 Terry Venables

14-1 José Mourinho

16-1 Gérard Houllier

22-1 Kevin Keegan, Jürgen Klinsmann

25-1 Steve McClaren

33-1 John Collins, Marcello Lippi

40-1 Rafael Benítez, Glenn Hoddle, Giovanni Trappatoni, Marco Van Basten

50-1 Roy Keane, Billy Davies

500-1 Ant and Dec

— Words by George Caulkin, odds by Paddy Power