Newcastle open to go foreign

Newcastle United are not ruling out the possibility of hiring a foreign manager.

Reports are linking them with former Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier.

Chris Mort the Newcastle chairman emphasised however that the manager if foreign must be able to master the English language.

"This is a big job without the manager having to operate through an interpreter," said Mort.

Houllier who is currently French Football Federation's technical director has emerged as one of the front runners for the Newcastle job.

FFF president Jean-Pierre Escalette said. "I'm not surprised he gets offers."

"He turned down one or two to rejoin us - and they were better financially than we could offer him."