The rumours surrounding an Unai Emery move to Newcastle United are starting to hot up, with David Ornstein weighing on the story.

As we covered on Monday, reports from Germany initially suggested Unai Emery was the favourite for the Newcastle United head coach job.

Patrick Berger reported that the Newcastle board were pushing to get a deal done in time for the international break.

David Ornstein now reports for The Athletic that Emery is indeed the leading contender for the Newcastle job, with the Premier League club working to finalise an agreement.

The only other serious candidate right now is Eddie Howe, but the preference is for Emery.

Newcastle would have to pay around £5.1m to pry Emery away from Villarreal, and they’d have to pay him the sort of money he was earning at Arsenal.

For now, there’s still no agreement in place.

It certainly seems like Newcastle need a new manager as soon as possible, as they flounder in the relegation zone. Their Saudi Arabian-backed takeover isn’t going to do so much for them if they drop down to the Championship.

Emery had a successful first season with Villarreal, finishing a respectable seventh in La Liga and winning the Europa League.

But they’ve struggled this campaign, sitting 13th with two wins in 11 league games and their Champions League campaign very much on a knife edge right now – one point off bottom of the group.