Jose Mourinho to Newcastle? ‘He’s advertising his availability’
Newcastle United’s owners are very much behind Eddie Howe despite reports linking Jose Mourinho with the manager’s position.
This is according to former Man United and Sunderland assistant manager Mick Brown, who remains very well-connected within the game, exclusively told Football Insider that Mourinho would “snap your hand off” to take over at St James’ Park.
Reports claimed that the boss is targeting the Magpies manager’s job if Howe leaves as he feels he has unfinished business in the Premier League.
Mourinho has been outspoken about the possibility of a return to England after initially claiming: “The best thing I have to do is when I leave Fener 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.“
More recently, he insisted: “Nobody wants to watch the Turkish league… Why should they see this? … It’s too grey, it’s too dark, smells bad.“
This, Brown says, will have angered the directors at Fenerbahce, while the manager has thrown his hat in the ring once more about a potential return to England.
Despite that, Newcastle are not thought to be considering his appointment at this time.
Jose Mourinho unlikely to take over from Eddie Howe at Newcastle
Mourinho’s experience in England is vast, having won three Premier League titles, four league cups, one FA Cup and the Europa League across spells with Chelsea, Man United and Tottenham.
However, Brown, who has worked closely with managers in his career including over a decade at Man United, has insisted Newcastle remain confident with Howe in charge, while it is unlikely Mourinho would be able to land a “top job” in England.
“I think Mourinho would like to think they’d want him,” he told Football Insider.
“Whether they actually do or not is a different question, especially with Eddie Howe in the job.
“As far as I’ve heard, they’re very much behind him and I have no reason to think otherwise.
“But Mourinho is very good at putting his name in the hat.
“We heard him talking about Turkish football last week and he said he’d be available to come back to England at some stage.
“If you’re on the Fenerbahce board of directors, you’re not going to be happy with that.
“He’s obviously advertising his availability to Premier League clubs.
“He knows he’s not going to get a really top job, but there’s a second sort of rung of the ladder where he’d snap your hands off to go – Newcastle being one of them.
“It would be a great club to manage and I’m sure he’s keen, but I doubt they’re interested at the moment.”
In other news, Arsenal want to sign “best in the world” Alexander Isak.
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