Eddie Howe breaks silence on England job and makes statement Newcastle fans will love
Eddie Howe has revealed he was not interviewed for the England job and did not even receive an official approach for the role now filled by Thomas Tuchel.
But the 46-year-old indicated that his only focus was Newcastle United and that he was more concerned about winning a trophy on Tyneside than debating whether he should have been further up the pecking order with the Three Lions. FA supremo Mark Bullingham had confirmed that 10 candidates had been spoken to but Howe was not concerned about being left out.
Speaking for the first time about the England job, Howe said today: "England have to do what is right for them and only they will know the processes they have gone through and the decisions they have made and I am certainly not the type of person that is going to analyse that.
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"For me, it's about Newcastle and trying to win games and it's hard enough to do that if you are 100% focused and I will always remain that way to my work. If you drop your levels then the job becomes impossible and at no stage have I allowed myself to do that."
When asked if he was interviewed for the the England job. He said: "No I wasn't, no". He was then asked if he was ever approached by the FA and simply replied with: "no".
With Tuchel now in position, and a big debate swirling around the lack of trophy winning English managers, Howe gave his backing to the ex-Bayern Munich manager.
He said: "I've got a relationship with Thomas and I was lucky enough to go and see him work at Chelsea when I was out of work. What a brilliant guy. What a great person. What a great coach. I had two days with him and thought he was fascinating and I wish him well. I think he's a great appointment and I hope he leads England to many trophies.
"My preference would have been for an English coach but if you are going to go foreign then go for the best and Thomas is certainly that."
When asked if he would be interested in the job in the future, Howe said: "Who knows? I've always said that you can never predict what's going to happen in management, you can never plan too far ahead. I certainly don't.
"I'm a day-to-day planner, while certainly acknowledging that Newcastle – I've always said this – has a future and we have to make sure we make the right decisions long-term.
"But the job takes so many twists and turns, you can't look too far ahead. I think that's negative, actually, if you do that, so in terms of my own career and what's five, 10 years ahead, I don't know, I've got no idea.
"But I'd never say that managing England isn't something I'd like to do maybe one day if given the opportunity, but my focus is Newcastle, Newcastle, Newcastle."