Amid all the talk of Steve Bruce losing his job as Newcastle United manager, PIF must also make a ruthless call on managing director Lee Charnley.

What's the story?

After what feels like an eternity, the Magpies are under new ownership, and there have already been serious talks of the club sacking Bruce before this weekend's Premier League game against Spurs.

The Daily Mail have also claimed that the club's new hierarchy could look to keep Charnley in his current role however, with them seeing value in him as a "good operator".

Get rid of Charnley too

In a piece for The Athletic earlier this summer, a source revealed: "Charnley knows he is on borrowed time. When a takeover happens, he’ll be asked for the alarm codes and the passwords and be told to leave."

Well, the takeover has now happened, and it goes without saying that Newcastle are entering a bright new era, aimed at first restoring a bit of pride and hope, and then making a real assault on the Premier League's current elite.

While Ashley has already gone, and Bruce is set to walk imminently too, Charnley remaining at St James' Park would seem contradictory to what PIF are trying to achieve at St James' Park.

The 43-year-old is as close a link as you can get to the Ashley regime, having worked under him for a number of years, and it's fair to say he didn't exactly stand out as someone with real leadership qualities.

A former club employee further said to The Athletic: "Mike has left a lot of responsibility to Lee, but Lee is just his yes-man and won’t stand up to him. Derek (Llambias) did; he had real barneys with Mike.

"Ashley gets Charnley to do the things he doesn’t want to do and Charnley just does what Ashley tells him. You think to yourself, ‘He’s a nice lad, he’ll try his best’, but as soon as anything remotely complicated comes up, he has to talk to Ashley and Ashley doesn’t have a clue.

"In Lee, you’ve pretty much got a yes-man, trying to predict what Mike would want him to say and then saying it. That’s no way to run a club."

If PIF and Newcastle are intent on kick-starting a new era on Tyneside, then getting rid of all ties to the disaster that Ashley presided over in his tenure at the club is absolutely key.

Axing Bruce would be a step forward, but letting Charnley walk as well can allow the Magpies to really start afresh.

Meanwhile, Newcastle could sign this former Premier League star for free...