‘I’m hearing’: Ian Wright says Newcastle are ‘going to go pretty big’, names 52-year-old boss

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Ian Wright has claimed that Newcastle United are ‘going to go pretty big’ in their managerial hunt, as he told the Kelly and Wrighty show.

The former striker shared that he is ‘hearing’ names like Lucien Favre and Antonio Conte as the new faces that can take to the Newcastle dugout.

Steve Bruce is still Newcastle manager and he will take charge of his 1000th game in management, when they take on Tottenham on Sunday afternoon.

But that hasn’t stopped rumours circulating, left, right and centre that the Englishman is going to be replaced – and he didn’t take too kind to those rumours in his pre-match press conference.

Nonetheless, Wright shared his thoughts on the Newcastle manager rumour and the road they have to go down.

“You need to appoint somebody for a project now,” said Wright. “Somebody that has got that energy to build a project.

“I have even heard Lucien Favre, whose name has been mentioned. I can see where they are going with a young, up and coming ambitious good manager, who was close to the Palace job.

“He’s kind of thinking of the Premier League. And you can see something like that. Then it’s going to come down to the directors of football and how they are looking to progress.

“I think they are going to go pretty big with somebody. I am hearing Conte’s name.”

It’s going to be a party atmosphere for Newcastle’s first game under their new Saudi ownership and they will be hoping for those all-important first three points of the campaign.

If they don’t manage the win, then it will be interesting to see how the fans react because there is no Mike Ashley at the club to vent their frustrations towards.

No-one will be surprised to hear that the Toon Army faithful don’t want Bruce leading them down their new path.

But given the little time the new consortium has had to prepare for the takeover, he might now be in a job longer than people think.

Going for a manager of Conte’s, 52, ilk would set a statement out, but perhaps this is where Newcastle need to realise that they need to pick themselves up before they can go for a manager like him.