Newcastle are in advanced talks with Rafa Benitez with current head coach Steve McClaren set to be sacked, according to Sky sources. Sky Sports News HQ understands McClaren will be dismissed by Newcastle before the Monday Night Ftball clash with Leicester, making way for Benitez to take control. Sky sources understand Benitez is in talks over a three-year deal and will be allowed to bring his own backrm staff to St James Park. Sky sources reported on Wednesday that Newcastle made an approach for the Spaniard and it is understd he will be named the clubs manager, with the Magpies ready to scrap their current policy of employing a head coach. It is understd first-team affairs for the match against Leicester could be left to first-team coaches Ian Cathro and Peter Beardsley. Rafas ups and downs A lk back at the career of the Spanish manager McClaren arrived at the clubs Darsley Park training complex as normal on Thursday shortly after 8am and continued to prepare the first-team squad for their clash against the Premier League leaders.He spoke to managing director Lee Charnley on the telephone on Wednesday afternn but a planned face-to-face meeting failed to materialise. We take a lk at Rafael Benitezs career since he arrived in England back in 2004 McClaren did not face the media on Thursday ahead of Newcastles trip to the King Power Stadium and was set to hold further discussions with Charnley following training.Saturdays 3-1 home defeat to Bournemouth condemned Newcastle to their fifth loss in six matches and left them in 19th place in the Premier League table. Jonjo Shelvey says Steve McClaren shouldnt take all the blame at Newcastle Also See: Newcastle approach Benitez Rafas ups and downs Newcastle board hold talks Vault: Leicester v Newcastle 1996 JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- Carson-Newman Eagles coach Ken Sparks has retired, ending a 37-season career in which he won 338 games to rank fifth on the NCAAs all-time list.Its been an unbelievable journey, Sparks said Monday during a news conference at the athletic complex that has been named after him.The only coaches with more career wins are John Gagliardi (489), Joe Paterno (409), Eddie Robinson (40 and Bobby Bowden (377). Sparks went 338-99-2 and had the most wins of any active coach.Sparks, 72, had continued coaching even after announcing in 2012 that he had cancer.Every day is a celebration, Sparks said Monday. I am at peace with this decision.On Tuesday, Carson-Newman?promoted offensive crdinator Mike Turner to succeed Sparks as head coach.?Turner is a former Carson-Newman center who graduated in 1973. He had his first stint as Carson-Newmans offensive crdinator from 1987-91 before leaving to take a high schl head coaching job. Turner tk over as Carson-Newmans offensive crdinator again in 1995 and had been there ever since.Before Carson-Newman entered the NCAA ranks in 1993, Sparks led the Eagles to five NAIA nationall championships -- in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1989.dddddddddddd Carson-Newman was an NAIA runner-up in 1987 and lost in the NCAA Division II championship game in 1996, 1998 and 1999. Carson-Newman reached the Division II semifinals in 2009.Sparks teams won 21 South Atlantic Conference championships and earned 25 NCAA or NAIA playoff appearances.Carson-Newman went 4-7 this year, only the second losing season in Sparks career.Sparks was inducted into the inaugural NCAA Division II Hall of Fame coaches class in 2010 along with Northwest Missouri States Mel Tjeerdsma and West Alabamas Bobby Wallace. Sparks also is in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and the NAIA Hall of Fame.This is a day that none of us lked forward to as Carson-Newman ftball fans and supporters, but its a day we honor and a day we rejoice in, Carson-Newman athletic director Allen Morgan said. Its a day we honor Ken and the legacy he is leaving for how he has touched young mens lives in a way far greater than wins on a ftball field. ' ' '