STEVE MCCLAREN last night made the first appointment of his Newcastle United career, bringing in Ian Cathro as his assistant manager.

The 28-year-old Scot agreed to move to the Magpies ‘in principle’ yesterday afternoon, and will join Newcastle from Valencia, where he spent a season in La Liga under manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who recruited the Dundee-based coach after meeting him on a coaching course.

Cathro is known for his different approach to coaching and fits McClaren’s track record in terms of left-field backroom appointments. When McClaren took charge of Middlesbrough in 2001, he surprisingly appointed psychologist Bill Beswick as his assistant.

While Cathro is more hands-on in a football sense, he will bring a new approach to the Premier League, having started his career in Dundee as a coach which led to a job with Dundee United where he is credited with bringing through local talent such as John Souttar and Ryan Gould.

In an interview with The Times earlier this year, Cathro said: "People probably thought I was a crazy young lunatic. It had to work. We were doing something different, so we could not fail."

With McClaren’s backroom taking shape - Newcastle are expected to appoint Steve Black as fitness coach and Alessandro Schoenmaker as strength and conditioning coach – there has been no progress made in terms of player recruitment with the suggestion that a move for Charlie Austin is dead in the water.

Austin has been earmarked by Newcastle to lead the line next season, but is understood to be lukewarm on a move to the North-East, while the former Burnley man is concerned that the £15million price tag placed on him by Queens Park Rangers may be putting other clubs off.

Austin scored 18 goals for Rangers last season despite the London club’s relegation, and has been a target for Newcastle ever since Danny Ings made his move from Burnley to Liverpool in the close season.

Both Ings and Austin were involved in Roy Hodgson’s England squad for the games against Republic of Ireland and Slovenia, and Austin, 25, does not want to drop down into the Championship which would almost certainly jeopardise his international career.

Perhaps more pressing is the Magpies’ need for defensive cover, with the squad looking worryingly thin at times last season. McClaren and the rest of the club’s board had earmarked Tyrone Mings as a prospect, but baulked at Ipswich’s £10million price tag on a player who cost Mick McCarthy just £10,000 a year ago.

However, Premier League newcomers Bournemouth have swooped for the imposing centre-half, breaking their transfer record to agree an £8million deal with the Championship outfit.

Newcastle have been credited with an interest in West Bromwich Albion defender Craig Dawson, who was a target of McClaren’s while in charge of Derby County, but reports linking the Magpies with Rams defender Richard Keogh are wide of the mark.

Remy Cabella is reportedly unhappy on Tyneside and is seeking a move away from the North-East, with Marseilles interested in the attacker following Dmitri Payet’s move to West Ham.

French site LaProvence.com reported that Cabella had instructed his agent to find a new club following the end of the Premier League season, with Marseille most likely to show interest having had an eight million Euro bid accepted in 2013 before Montpellier chairman Louis Nicollin cancelled the deal.