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Steve McClaren will be asked to become Newcastle's new manager in the next 24 hours as the relegation trap-door inches closer, writes Neil Moxley in the Sunday People.

Just a day after seeing his Derby side fail to qualify for the Championship's promotion play-offs, former England head coach McClaren will be offered the job of stopping the rot on Tyneside.

The Magpies slipped to an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Leicester on Saturday - an EIGHTH consecutive defeat that has them glancing over their shoulders at the bottom three.

McClaren has been on the Toon radar since Christmas - along with a number of foreign coaches, including Remi Garde, who was interviewed by the club's top brass - but the hierarchy have decided to press ahead now the Rams have failed to reach the second tier's end-of-season shoot-out.

Leicester 3-0 Newcastle in pictures:

Relations between ex-Middlesbrough chief McClaren and Derby chief executive Sam Rush have been strained because of the continued speculation linking the 53-year-old Yorkshireman with a move back to the North-East.

But now the long-predicted move appears set to go ahead with a meeting planned for this afternoon that will rubber-stamp the move.

If McClaren agrees to the switch, he has just three games - West Brom at home next Saturday, QPR away and a season finale at home to West Ham - to reverse the club's fortunes.

As Newcastle slipped to defeat in the east Midlands, ending the match with nine men after the dismissals of Mike Williamson and Daryl janmaat, the travelling Toon Army taunted their own players with 'You're not fit to wear the shirt'.

Caretaker boss John Carver, placed in charge when Alan Pardew quit to become Crystal Palace boss in January, later accused centre-half Williamson of earning his second booking DELIBERATELY.