Cathro set for Toon assistant role

25 June 2015 01:32

Ian Cathro is set to be appointed as Newcastle head coach Steve McClaren's assistant.

Press Association Sport understands the 28-year-old Scot, who left a similar post at Valencia at the end of last season, has accepted the Magpies' offer to join McClaren's staff after a lengthy search.

Cathro, who started coaching in his teens after injury ended his fledgling playing career, has emerged as a target in recent days and while the club is yet to confirm his appointment, it is understood a deal is now in place.

McClaren turned to the former Dundee United coach after struggling in his efforts to bring in a successful former player in the early years of a new phase of his career, with Phil Neville and Bolo Zenden among the men sounded out about the vacancy.

The former England manager's need is pressing with the start of pre-season a little more than a week away and his staff team still to be assembled in the wake of the departures of John Carver and Steve Stone.

Fitness guru Steve Black has also been linked with a role at St James' Park as the club prepares to embark upon a new era after a dreadful 2014-15 campaign.

Confirmation of Cathro's appointment will provide a boost for both McClaren and managing director Lee Charnley with the latter desperately trying to land the players identified as targets for a major summer recruitment drive at the same time as securing additions to the coaching team.

The Tyneside-bound coach, who was linked with the manager's job at Rangers earlier this year, enjoys a blossoming reputation within the game, and his comments in a recent interview may strike a chord with fans left disgruntled by last season's struggles.

Cathro told BBC Sport in March: "You project forward to the types of job you want to do. I want to fill a stadium and make people excited about coming, feeling that as an enjoyable thing to watch and embrace, whilst being able to do something of significance at a club that leaves a structure and a system so that it continues to profit from beyond my period of time.

"That's the types of jobs that are more appealing and more natural to me. You're paid a lot of money, football gives you a lot of good things, and it's the club's position in society that gives you that. It's important that the club gets its value from you."

Source: PA