Newcastle United’s board have yet to act on a run of one win in six, but the clock Matthias Jaissle is working against has now been stated out loud.

Keith Wyness, Everton’s chief executive from 2004 to 2009, told Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast on Monday that he views an exit for the German head coach as a matter of when rather than if, with the timing pinned to the Christmas table.

“I don’t think the writing is on the wall. I think the writing is being written as we’re speaking, but it’s not been signed, is the way I would put it,” Wyness said.

He then named the threshold.

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“If they’re out of the Champions League running just after Christmas, and in the bottom half of the table around that same sort of time, then I’d expect a change.”

Newcastle currently sit 11th in the Premier League after a punishing week at St James’ Park. They drew 1-1 with Fulham on the Saturday, Jacob Murphy’s 80th-minute strike cancelled out almost immediately by Rodrigo Muniz, before losing 1-0 at home to Everton on the Monday. The Everton defeat landed four days after David Moyes’s side had also knocked Newcastle out of the Carabao Cup.

McKenna on the emergency shortlist

The hierarchy is already working quietly behind the result sheet. Journalist Alan Nixon reported via SportBible on 8 November that Kieran McKenna, the former Ipswich Town manager Newcastle weighed as an alternative to Jaissle in the summer, has been added to an “emergency” list of candidates. McKenna remains out of work, with a reported £8m compensation clause in his Ipswich contract that any hiring club would have to settle.

Nixon framed the work as succession planning rather than an active search, stressing that Jaissle does not appear to be under immediate pressure to be dismissed.

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From Riyadh to Tyneside in 14 weeks

Jaissle, 38, was appointed on 5 August to replace Eddie Howe after Howe’s near five-year spell in the dugout. He arrived from Al-Ahli with his reputation at its peak, having just won back-to-back AFC Champions League Elite titles. The Premier League transition has been rougher than Newcastle hoped. Away defeats at Leeds, Coventry and Everton have mounted up, the 4-2-3-1 has drawn criticism for being read too easily by opposition coaches, and Read Newcastle reported “whispers in the dressing room about concerns on Jaissle’s methods”.

Bryan King, the former Manchester United chief scout, was blunter on the same outlet.

“He’ll be lucky if he’s not sacked by Christmas,” King said.

The international break now gives Newcastle a pause and gives Jaissle time to work. By the point Wyness has named, mid-to-late December, the Premier League will have moved on roughly six matchdays from the current one, and the shape of the Champions League race will be clearer.

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