IPSWICH will select their new manager from a shortlist of five candidates, The Evening Star can reveal today.Town's new boss will be Willie Donachie, Jim Magilton, Colin Calderwood, Ian Holloway or Nigel Pearson.

By Mel Henderson

IPSWICH will select their new manager from a shortlist of five candidates, The Evening Star can reveal today.

Town's new boss will be Willie Donachie, Jim Magilton, Colin Calderwood, Ian Holloway or Nigel Pearson.

Star readers will be familiar with the first four names on the list, all of them identified by this newspaper as leading candidates for the role vacated by Joe Royle two weeks ago.

And today we can reveal that they will go head-to-head with West Bromwich Albion assistant manager Pearson in the race for the Portman Road hot seat.

Albion confirmed they have given permission for Pearson to talk to Ipswich.

Manager Bryan Robson said: “He is a very important part of my backroom staff and we don't want to lose him.

“But Nigel would like the chance to be a manager in his own right and this is a very good opportunity for him. I don't want to stand in his way.”

Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks and chief executive Derek Bowden have identified the men who will now be interviewed by the board of directors before a final decision is announced.

Current assistant manager Willie Donachie, 54, was first to declare his hand, confirming his candidacy within hours of Royle's shock exit.

Royle's right-hand man at Oldham, Everton, Manchester City and Ipswich is keen to grab the reins and go it alone.

Ex-skipper Magilton, who quit as a Town player last month, initially played down his interest in taking charge, possibly thinking he would have only an outside chance of landing the plum role.

But the 37-year-old will quickly abandon plans to continue playing elsewhere if the Ipswich hierarchy decide he is the best man to take the club forward.

Calderwood, 41, emerged as a leading candidate when Northampton were forced, under the terms of his contract there, to grant him permission to speak to Town.

He won promotion for the Cobblers from League Two last season, following two near misses in the play-offs, and is rated one of the brightest prospects in the country.

Holloway has been on “gardening leave” since being suspended by QPR in February and has made no secret of his desire to return to management.

The 43-year-old, renowned for his wacky after-match interviews, has been linked in the past with vacancies at Leicester and Millwall, while he is also understood to be in the running to take over at League One outfit Yeovil.

Pearson was appointed assistant manager of West Brom when Robson returned to The Hawthorns in November 2004.

The pair had worked together before at Middlesbrough, where Robson was in charge and Pearson an inspirational skipper between 1994 and 1998.

Now 42 and a former central defender with Shrewsbury and Sheffield Wednesday, Pearson was manager of Carlisle and assistant boss of Stoke City before joining the Football Association and working with every England youth team from the under-16s to the under-20s.