NEWCASTLE UNITED officials have initiated formal talks with Remi Garde, and are hoping to appoint a permanent head coach before the end of next week.

Garde, who has been without employment since leaving his previous position in charge of Lyon at the end of last season, is understood to have had personal talks with Newcastle managing director Lee Charnley, who is leading the recruitment process to appoint Alan Pardew’s successor.

The Frenchman has already confirmed his desire to move to Tyneside, and is willing to work within a managerial structure that will see Charnley and chief scout Graham Carr retain primary control over player recruitment and sales.

Garde’s chief responsibilities will be on the training ground, and the 48-year-old will be given leeway to appoint his own coaching staff if the terms of a contract can be agreed.

He is not the only candidate still under consideration, with former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood also regarded as a strong contender, but the fact that Newcastle’s recruitment team have turned to Garde first provides a strong indication that he is the club’s preferred option.

Further talks are expected to take place over the weekend, but even if Garde was to be appointed next week, it is extremely unlikely that he would take charge of next weekend’s home game with Southampton.

That match marks the start of a two-week hiatus caused by Newcastle’s early exit from the FA Cup, and that period is viewed as an ideal period for a new head coach to settle himself in and prepare for the trip to Hull City on January 31.

Garde’s candidature has been championed primarily by Carr, with the head of Newcastle’s scouting network impressed with the former Arsenal and Carlisle United midfielder’s work at Lyon, where he spent eight years working as assistant to Claude Puel, Paul Le Guen, Gerard Houllier and Alain Perrin before taking charge himself for three seasons.

John Carver has been told he is likely to remain in caretaker charge for next weekend’s game with Southampton, as well as today’s trip to the Premier League leaders, Chelsea.

The former assistant insists his players remain focused on the task in hand despite the ongoing uncertainty, but admits the situation will become more difficult if the current lack of clarity is allowed to continue indefinitely.

“The only thing I will say – and I’ve said this to Lee – is that I’ve been in this situation before and, if you don’t do something about it in a short space of time, you can end up drifting,” said Carver. “And what this football club can’t be doing is drifting, so a decision has to be made sooner rather than later. For everybody’s benefit.

“When I had that conversation with Lee, I said I want to throw my hat in the ring and you want the right coach, but you can’t allow this to go on and on and on. They understand that, but what they’re not going to do, and rightly so, is make a rash decision and say, ‘We’ll take him’.

“They need thinking time, and I understand that. He trusts me to do the job while they can have their thinking time and do their due diligence. I understand that.”

Before Garde emerged as a clear front runner for a permanent position, there had been talk of Carver being offered the job until the end of the season in order to allow the Newcastle hierarchy to consider candidates who would be unwilling to change jobs halfway through a campaign.

St Etienne boss Christophe Galtier has ruled out leaving his Ligue 1 employers before the summer at the earliest, while the likes of Steve McClaren and Eddie Howe, who publicly rejected a move to Newcastle this week, could find themselves in a different position if their respective clubs do not win promotion in the next four months.

The risk in keeping Carver in caretaker charge, though, is that the remainder of the campaign becomes a write off, and while the Magpies are currently ten points clear of the relegation zone, the second half of last season provides a salutary reminder of how quickly things can turn sour.

“If they said to me, ‘Take it to the end of the season’, I’d be prepared to do the job, no danger” said Carver. “I have enough belief in myself, and there’s enough time until the end of the season that they’d say to me at the end of the season, ‘You’ve done a good job – keep the job’.”

Carver’s credentials have not really been enhanced by a caretaker spell that has featured a draw with Burnley and an FA Cup defeat to Leicester City, but while his only managerial experience came in a 12-month spell at MLS side Toronto, the boyhood Newcastle fan insists his credentials should not be underplayed.

“People ask me what my qualifications are,” he said. “Well, I’ve got the UEFA A license, and that’s a starting point. I’ve worked with some of the best people in the game – (Kevin) Keegan, (Kenny) Dalglish, (Ruud) Gullit, Sir Bob (Robson) – good, top people.

“That experience is another part of my qualification because I’ve been fortunate to work with these top people, working with different styles of management.

“I went to Toronto for their second season (in the MLS). Mo Johnston managed the first and got something like 15 points – I took over the same team the following season and we were within four points of the play-offs.

“The following season, we were top of the league after six games, but I had a disagreement with them because I felt they weren’t wanting to move as fast as I was.”