Round keen on Everton switch

Jun 28 2008 by Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post

STEVE ROUND is ready to accept the role as David Moyes’s number two – although Chelsea and FC Twente are set to make late attempts to change his mind.

Everton manager Moyes interrupted his holiday to call Newcastle first team coach Round and ask him to fill the role vacated by Alan Irvine last November.

He has been given permission to speak to the club as Moyes looks to install his new assistant ahead of the return to pre-season training next Thursday, after Round’s current contract at St James’s Park expires on July 1.

But Chelsea and Twente – who Round’s former colleague Steve McClaren took charge of earlier this week – are also in the hunt for his services.

New Stamford Bridge manager Luiz Felipe Scolari is busy assembling his backroom team after joining from Portugal following their Euro 2008 exit last week.

He has already decided to bring Flavio Teixeira and Darlan Schneider – his assistant and fitness coach respectively at Portugal – to London and is also set to bring in former colleague Carlos Pracidelli as the club’s new goalkeeping coach.

Round is being earmarked as a possibility for the role of first team coach, a position he has held at Newcastle since Sam Allardyce appointed him last summer.

Intriguingly, Scolari’s reassembling of his team is likely to see the end of Steve Clarke’s association with the club.

The Scot has also been in the frame for the job of Moyes’s assistant and could emerge as another option if the appointment of Round fails to come off.

While Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan wants the 37-year-old to stay, Round will leave when his contract expires.

McClaren has enjoyed a long association with Round as his assistant both with England and Middlesbrough and is set to sound him out about joining him in Holland.