Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd will have to speak to his Wigan counterpart Dave Whelan personally if he has any plans to prise manager Paul Jewell away from Wigan to replace Graeme Souness.

As Jewell prepares for the first major cup final of his managerial career, Dave Whelan has spoken from Barbados to give his views on the current rumours surrounding his manager’s future,

“I am told Freddy is here in Barbados but I have no idea where he is staying and I have not spoken to him. If Freddy had any interest in Paul Jewell he would speak to me directly. He’s that kind of man.”

He added: “I will back Paul in whatever he chooses to do - and that includes leaving this club for one of the big clubs if that is what he wants.

“Manchester United and Liverpool are big clubs. Chelsea are a big club too. But Chelsea are down south and I can’t see Paul going down there.

“Paul is straight down the line with me and if he wanted to move on, I would be the first to know.

“Paul Jewell can stay as long as he wishes with me. I have told him ‘name the length of your contract’.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 26th, 2006 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Wigan Athletic. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.