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Newcastle United hero Nobby Solano is among those to have applied for the vacant Bury manager's position after Kevin Blackwell was sacked on Monday.

The ex-Peru and United midfielder made more than 550 appearances in his playing career - more than 230 of those while on Tyneside across two spells.

Solano did become the part-time first-team coach of Newcastle Benfield but moved back to his native Peru where he gained his first full managerial experience at one of his former playing clubs, Universitario de Deportes.

Despite early success with the Primera Division side, he left the club in December 2012.

The Bury job has been vacant since Blackwell's departure, after he paid the price for a run which has seen Bury slip to 21st in League Two, just six months after he was unable to prevent the club being relegated from League One.

Blackwell’s assistant Ronnie Jepson has taken over as caretaker manager while Solano was one of the surprise names to express his interest in the permanent position.

Ex-Leeds and Coventry striker Noel Whelan has also put his name forward and Steve Kean, who had a turbulent tenure at Blackburn, has been strongly linked with the job.

However, Jepson has been installed as the early favourite to succeed Blackwell, ahead of another former Bury favourite Chris Lucketti, currently assistant manager of League Two rivals Fleetwood.

Whelan, also 38, has recently been coaching in Notts County’s Academy and is about to gain his UEFA ‘A’ Licence. Bury have gone seven games without a win and Blackwell’s position became untenable when most of the main stand chanted ‘Blackwell out’ during Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat by Morecambe.

Chairman Stewart Day said: "We would like to thank Kevin for his efforts to turn this great club into a promotion-winning side, but for whatever reason, the efforts off the pitch was not reflected by the performances and results on the pitch."

Blackwell maintains that the summer takeover meant he did not have enough time to rebuild his squad in pre-season.

"It’s been an interesting 13 weeks," he said.

"It has been an extremely tough time while I’ve been at the club and we found it difficult in pre-season. To get a team together to compete was difficult. But they’re a fantastic club and I wish them well."