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Georgia boss Temuri Ketsbaia has been spotted in Newcastle – 14 years after becoming a cult hero on Tyneside.

But before you go rushing to the bookmakers to pile money on the former Magpies midfielder to replace under-pressure Alan Pardew, he was just visiting his former parish while back in Britain with his national side Georgia.

Ketsbaia has done a sterling job with the Balkan nation in the last three years, helping them to beat Croatia in the last European Championship qualifiers and draw with Greece. And they held Yohan Cabaye’s France in the last World Cup qualifiers.

It is the sort of record that clubs on these shores will take notice of – and he might fancy the Newcastle United job, if his wife Katerina’s Twitter feed is anything to go by.

She re-tweeted a fan who said he was ‘hoping’ the Georgia boss was in Toon for an interview.

Ketsbaia is on record as eyeing the Newcastle job. Back in 2011, he told the Sunday Sun: “Of course I would love that one day.

“It is every coach’s dream to come and manage in England and for me, Newcastle is a special club. A big club with fantastic supporters, and maybe one day I can come back and take them over.

“I would love to manage in the Premier League because of the passion and because it is a top league in the world. But I have a job with Georgia and I want to take them to a major finals.”