Jose Mourinho is eyeing up the Newcastle job if Eddie Howe leaves St James’ Park.
Mourinho, who is currently at the helm of Turkish giants Fenerbahce, teased a return to the Premier League last month. And the Special One made his unhappiness in Turkey even clearer with an extraordinary rant after Fenerbahce’s 3-2 win over Trabzonspor.
According to The Guardian, Mourinho has reached out to intermediaries asking to keep tabs on the developments at Newcastle. Mourinho also met Newcastle’s chairman, Yasir al-Rumayyan, at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in a social capacity in March and has maintained the connection.
Speaking after his Manchester United return, he said: “The best thing I have to do is when I leave Fenerbahce is that I go to a club that doesn’t play in UEFA competition.
“So a club at the bottom in England who needs a coach in two years, I’m ready to go. I don’t want to speak anymore about it. I want to speak about the game.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Eddie Howe isn’t under any great pressure at Newcastle, and the Magpies are coming off back-to-back victories against Chelsea and Arsenal. However, Newcastle’s owners are wanting Champions League football.
Howe lost two crucial allies when the directors Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi. There has been reports of tension with sporting director, Paul Mitchell, who was appointed in July.
Speaking on Friday, Howe said: “It feels good to still be here. I’m so pleased with how it’s going, so pleased to be in this position and still dreaming. I’m happy with the progress but you always want more and we haven’t got the one thing we wanted when we came in which was a trophy.
“That was the dream, that’s still the dream and still driving us. We believe we can achieve extraordinary things and that’s the focal point driving us every day. Qualifying for Europe again is one of our aims this season.”