There was a sense of deja vu when news broke this week that the Jets were in the market for a replacement after Arthur Papas' unexpected resignation as head coach, with a season remaining on his contract.

And while the search for a successor is Mattiske's immediate priority and the focal point for supporters, we should not lose sight of the bigger picture.

It is now coming up for two-and-a-half years since the Jets' former owner, Chinese businessman Martin Lee, was stripped of his franchise licence and exiled after deciding he had burned more than enough millions during a tenure of almost five years.

Like Nathan Tinkler and Con Constantine before him, Lee disappeared out the back door without so much as a solitary pat on the back, wallet lighter and dreams dashed, leaving behind a club that was effectively insolvent.

Previously Football Australia had stepped in twice to prop the Jets up temporarily, but after Lee's departure the burden of keeping Newcastle's franchise afloat fell upon the newly formed Australian Professional Leagues (APL) - in other words, their fellow A-League outfits.

At this point, Mattiske was hired as executive chairman and handed the task of stabilising the club on an interim basis until a permanent custodian, or custodians, could be sourced.

We're still waiting.

This is not meant as a criticism of Mattiske, a long-serving sporting administrator who worked for many years at the NRL, including a stint as the chief executive officer.

Nobody is suggesting that trying to flog an A-League franchise in this economic climate is anything but a tough gig.

At various times over the past couple of years, there have reportedly been interested parties, and Mattiske has stated a number of times that talks have been "progressing", while reiterating that it is a long and complicated process.

It would seem reasonable to assume that those responsible for writing the cheques over the past three seasons want some sort of return on their respective investments.

They are presumably not in it merely for the love of the game, or out of the goodness of their hearts.

Multi-millionaires are not renowned for wasting their hard-earned.

At some point, reading between the lines, they will be hoping to sell the Jets and recoup their outlay. If they can make a tidy profit in the process, then everyone's a winner.

Exactly why it has taken so long is anyone's guess. Perhaps the due diligence undertaken on prospective owners has been been forensic, to avoid a repeat of the debacles when Constantine, Tinkler and Lee eventually imploded.

Or perhaps the asking price is a deterrent, if reports that APL is seeking "expansion fees" of about $25 million for two as-yet-unspecified new franchises are any indication.

Why anyone would want to spend millions buying the Jets, who to my knowledge have never broken even financially in any season since the A-League's 2005-06 foundation campaign, is beyond me.

To put that in context, in 2017 the NRL effectively sold the Knights to the Wests Group for $1, although Wests did commit to spending $10 million on a Centre of Excellence, matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the state government.

By the same token, like a run-down house in an upmarket suburb, maybe the Jets are a bargain just waiting for a visionary to unearth their full potential.

What I can say with confidence is if the Jets are winning games, qualifying for the finals and packing out McDonald Jones Stadium, they will surely be a more attractive commodity.

That is unlikely to happen unless Newcastle have the right coach in place.

By all accounts, Mattiske has been wading through dozens of expressions of interest, and no doubt many of the candidates are highly qualified.

It's a crucial decision, because the last thing the Jets need at this particular juncture is another short-lived coach. Clubs who regularly turn over their coaches are rarely successful in any sporting code.

For mine, there are two criteria that should weigh heavily in the decision-making process.

Firstly, the coach needs to be someone the Novocastrian faithful will recognise.

Good luck trying to sell season tickets and get the community excited if the job goes to a coach who nobody knows from a bar of soap.

Moreover, ideally the successful applicant should be somebody with a connection or emotional attachment to Newcastle.

Papas and one of his recent predecessors, Carl Robinson, arrived with impressive resumes, but in both instances, there was a suspicion that coaching Newcastle was just a stepping stone in their career paths.

Robinson was quick to jump when he received a more attractive offer from Western Sydney Wanderers.

Papas is reportedly exploring options in Asia and clearly harbours ambitions above and beyond a battling A-League club.

Now, more than ever, the Jets need a coach who is the right fit and in it for the long haul. They simply can't afford to get this one wrong.

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