McDonald will take charge of the club following their relegation from the Championship this season.

As a player, McDonald made more than 200 appearances for Newcastle in a career which also included spells with Everton, Oldham, Bolton and Preston.

His last job in coaching was at West Ham, where he was number two to Sam Allardyce, but with the manager having left the club at the end of the season, McDonald also departed Upton Park.

McDonald managed Carlisle United to the club’s highest placed finish for 20 years in 2007, before briefly heading to Sweden to save Östersunds FK from relegation. 

"This is a great opportunity for me, it's a massive football club in my opinion and I'm really looking forward to the challenge," McDonald told the official website. "It's a challenge that's going to be difficult - wherever you go it's always difficult - but it's a challenge that I'm really up for and really excited about."

"I've got to try and put my stamp on the football club and get it back to where it was. I've got to try and stabilise it first of all after what happened last year with relegation and change people's minds to try and get the confidence back and push the club on to pastures new." 

Blackpool endured a shambolic season, with only 8 senior players at the club last summer, former Charlton manager Jose Riga was brought in to try and build a squad.

But complaints over the lack of movement in the transfer market and a poor start to the season saw him sacked in October, and replaced by then Birmingham manager Lee Clark.

But Clark found himself at odds as well with the club in relation to player recruitment, and the side were relegated having won only four times all season.

The task of guiding the club back to the Championship was clearly not one Clark was willing to do, and he resigned at the end of the season.