John Carver comes home.

After four months, Newcastle have finally decided to appoint a number two, and it is someone worth waiting for.

John Carver has been named assistant manager at Newcastle, a role that he made his own under the late, great Sir Bobby Robson. The deal will initially last until the end of the season whilst both Carver and Pardew try to work out if they can work with each other, but it could easily be extended beyond that if everything works out.

"I am proud and honoured to be able to come back once again to my home town club," Carver told nufc.co.uk.

"I have been lucky to be able to work around the world with some excellent people. However, I have always been a fan of this magnificent club and the years I spent working here were some of the happiest of my life."

"I am looking forward to working with Alan Pardew and building on the recent strides that the club has taken to get back to where we belong, at the top of English football. I understand how much the club and the results mean to these wonderful fans and I am delighted to be have the opportunity to assist Alan in delivering them the success they deserve."

"I would like to thank Mike, Derek and Alan for giving me this incredible opportunity."

To be honest, it's a better appointment than I exected. I was expecting someone called something like Billy Smash from somewhere like the Rose and Crown Sunday league team. Needless to say I am delighted with this.

Carver knows the club and the fans inside out and has, as he said, worked with some of the nest names in football. He has a weath of experience and is widely respected in the football world, whch can only be a good thing and will help Alan Pardew out.

"I'm delighted to be bringing John on board," Pardew said. "He has an excellent track record as a coach and of course knows this club very well."

"It was crucial for me that I brought in an assistant who I knew would work well with the current coaching team we have here. We've got a good solid set-up with some excellent staff and maintaining that stability is very important to me. John fitted the bill perfectly."

"It's a short term deal at the moment in order that I can get to know John better and it gives us both the chance to see how the next four months pan out working together."

"That said, I'm very confident he'll be a great addition to our coaching staff and hopefully, if things go well, we can make it a longer term appointment come the summer."

Welcome home John!