WITH Newcastle United sporting director, Lee Charnley, set to open formal talks with Steve McClaren before the weekend, Jack Colback has admitted this season has been a “wake-up call” for everybody involved with the club.

Having watched the Magpies scrape to safety on the final day of the campaign, Charnley has been charged with the task of appointing a new permanent head coach to ensure next season does not develop into another battle against the drop.

Despite presiding over a record-breaking run of eight successive Premier League defeats, John Carver’s candidature will receive serious consideration over the next few days. However, while the former assistant has been assured that he will be retained in some capacity beyond the summer, it is extremely unlikely that he will be offered an opportunity to continue in the same role he filled in the second half of the season.

Instead, Charnley is in the process of drawing up a new shortlist of potential head coaches, with McClaren continuing to feature prominently despite rejecting the offer of a fire-fighting role for the final three games of the season.

The former Middlesbrough and England boss was approached after Newcastle’s 3-0 defeat at Leicester, but opted to remain at Derby County rather than take over a club that appeared to be in meltdown following the dramatic events at the King Power Stadium.

McClaren’s position changed on Monday evening when he was dismissed from the Ipro Stadium, and while there is still a degree of discomfort at the way events unfolded at the start of the month, Charnley is understood to be willing to hold further discussions that could well see the Yorkshireman return to management in the North-East.

McClaren was long regarded as Newcastle’s preferred candidate in the wake of Alan Pardew’s departure for Crystal Palace in December, and he still has some powerful supporters within the hierarchy at St James’ Park.

However, he will not be the only candidate to be approached in the next week or so, with Charnley determined to carry out as much due diligence as possible before making his first major appointment as sporting director.

The likes of Remi Garde, Christophe Galtier and Michael Laudrup, who were all considered in January, are likely to be approached, while Burton boss Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink was being touted as a surprise contender at the start of the week.

Whoever is appointed will inherit a squad in need of some radical summer surgery, and while Newcastle’s transfer business will continue to be driven by a recruitment team headed by Charnley and Graham Carr, a new head coach will be allowed to have a degree of input into incomings and outgoings.

In his surprise weekend interview with Sky, Mike Ashley pledged to make a “significant investment” into the club this summer, and having been one of the players to arrive at St James’ in the last close season, Colback admits it will be important to learn some lessons from the events of the last five months.

“Questions have to be asked as to why this happened,” said the midfielder. “We have to try to understand why we had such a bad demise.

“Obviously, we had injuries and suspensions, and they didn’t help, but it’s probably a wake-up call for everybody at the club. It’s a huge club, but everybody’s had a tough time with the run we’ve been on.”

Newcastle’s post-Christmas slump took them to the brink of relegation to the Championship, only for last weekend’s win over West Ham to haul them to the security of a 15th-placed finish.

Jonas Gutierrez’s goal in his final Magpies appearance ensured there was an emotional end to a largely disastrous campaign, but while there was inevitable relief at a successful avoidance of the drop, nobody was in the mood for celebrations on Sunday night.

“We didn’t really want to celebrate the fact we stayed in the league because that should be the bare minimum,” said Colback. “We got ourselves into a difficult position in the second half of the season, and we should never have got ourselves into that mess.

“But that’s football, and it’s a tough league. When you get into the kind of run that we had, it can be hard to get yourself back out.

“At least, in the end, we did get ourselves out of it. The fans can vent their anger however they want to now, but hopefully we can forget about the season and have a really good go next season.”

* Paul Dummett has been called into the Wales squad for a Euro 2016 qualifier with Belgium on June 12.