CHRIS LAKEY Glenn Roeder is expected to name former Newcastle United team-mate Paul Stephenson as the final piece in his coaching jigsaw.

CHRIS LAKEY

Glenn Roeder is expected to name former Newcastle United team-mate Paul Stephenson as the final piece in his coaching jigsaw.

Canaries boss Roeder has again raided the north-east, this time to prise Stephenson away from his youth team coaching role at League One side Hartlepool United, having already taken Newcastle United's reserve team manager Lee Clark to become his assistant at Carrow Road.

Norwich City have yet to confirm the appointment, but reports in the north-east say Roeder has got his man and that an official announcement will be made before Friday.

“We will have two Geordies in Lee Clark and Paul Stephenson and an adopted Geordie in myself, and we will take Norwich City clear of relegation trouble,” Roeder is quoted as saying in one newspaper - despite making himself unavailable for local media interviews.

Roeder was believed to have had two men in mind for the coaching role - Stephenson and Adam Sadler, who was previously assistant Academy director at St James Park and has been working as goalkeeping coach at first-team level in recent weeks.

However, Clark's departure left a vacancy as coach of the reserve team, which manager Sam Allardyce filled by promoting Sadler this week.

Stephenson began his career at Newcastle, brought up through the ranks alongside Paul Gascoigne and playing with him at England youth level. He made his senior debut at the age of 17 and made 67 appearances on the wing for Newcastle before he sold to Millwall in 1988 for £300,000.

He spent five years with the Lions during which time he played a dozen games for Gillingham, then managed by Roeder, on loan, before moving to Brentford on 1993 and then, two years later, to York City, before finishing his career at Hartlepool United. He made his final appearance for the club in the team's unsuccessful 2002 play-off semi-final, second leg against Cheltenham when he missed a penalty in the shoot-out.

Stephenson retired in March 2003 and immediately joined Hartlepool's coaching staff as assistant youth team coach. He later became head of the youth team and then, when Martin Scott was sacked as manager at the end of the 2005-06 season, was in caretaker charge. He failed to save the club from relegation to League Two and returned to his youth team role.

Roeder's incursions into the north-east, where he spent six years as a player at Newcastle and later a year as manager, haven't been restricted to recruiting backroom staff. There were strong rumours that he was keen on bringing Magpies' out-of-favour striker Shola Ameobi to Norwich on a short-term loan deal, and that Newcastle midfielder Matty Pattison is another target.