JOHN CARVER has claimed he is the “best coach in the Premier League” despite Newcastle United suffering a club-record run of eight successive defeats in all competitions under his stewardship.

Carver has been charged with the task of guiding the Magpies to safety in the final three games of the season despite a chaotic few days that saw the Newcastle hierarchy contact Steve McClaren in an attempt to parachute the former England manager into St James’ Park for the remainder of the survival battle.

Carver was involved in a disastrous afternoon at Leicester’s King Power Stadium last Saturday, accusing Mike Williamson of getting himself sent off on purpose in his side’s 3-0 defeat and conceding that his players “might not be listening to him” any more.

With Newcastle now just two points clear of the relegation zone, Saturday’s home game with West Brom has assumed huge importance, but while others might be calling for a change in head coach, Carver remains adamant that he is the best person to be guiding the Magpies to safety.

Carver said: “I still have the enthusiasm for it. I try not to take as much notice of what’s going on on the outside because that can’t affect me.

“What can affect my situation is my train of thought and how positive I am. I am a positive guy.

“I still think I’m the best coach in the Premier League. That’s what I think. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I still do.

“If I have the right tools, I can do the job. I’m doing the job to the best of my ability at the moment and I’ll continue doing that for the next three weeks.”

Carver met managing director Lee Charnley to discuss his future on Monday morning, but the former assistant denies that he offered to tender his resignation or that he was asked to step aside.

He said: “I never offered to resign, I never offered to walk away, I never offered to step aside, so contrary to what was in the media, once I'd had a conversation with Lee and knew what my position was – and they never asked me to resign - nothing came into the equation.

“I was clear in my head on Monday morning that I was in this for the next three games to challenge the fight in front of us.”

By Monday evening, Fabricio Coloccini had issued an open letter urging Newcastle supporters to get behind their team, and while some have detected the whiff of a PR stunt, Carver brandished a piece of paper at this afternoon’s press conference that he claimed contained the skipper’s handwritten words.

He said: “I have brought the letter with me, in his handwriting, in Spanish - that’s the letter there, signed by Colo at the bottom. This was the third draft he put together because of his grammar.

“That is the genuine letter, from his heart. The fact he wrote that letter proves to me he is up for the fight. It also proves that when they (the players) had their meeting on Monday - I wasn’t involved in it and neither were any of the other coaching staff - they dealt with the situation and they are going to deal with this situation, along with my support, to get themselves out of this position.

“That shows. I know we can say talk is cheap, but that shows me that the players are up and ready for this fight.”

Carver has spoken with Williamson in the wake of his post-match comments at Leicester, and has been delighted with the defender’s response on the training ground this week.

He said: “Me and Mike have had a good discussion – and again, that's going to stay private. Maybe I have learnt my lesson, but that's going to stay private.

“At the end of the conversation, we stood up, shook each other's hand, and Mike has been fantastic in training this week. All right, he's not available for the next two games, but he certainly will be for the last one (against West Ham).

“There are no hard feelings. Every morning, we have come in, we have shaken hands, looked each other in the eye and just got on with it because we are professional.”