Fabrizio Romano has taken to his exclusive Daily Briefing column to hit out at the recent reports linking Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe as a potential future candidate for the England job.
Writing today, Romano expressed the view that it’s disrespectful to both sides, with Newcastle deserving to keep their manager focused on their club during the middle of the season, while current England manager Gareth Southgate also continues to do a fine job with the national team, who beat Italy 3-1 at Wembley last night.
Howe has done fine work at Newcastle and Romano admits he’s always been liked by key figures in the FA, though for now there is nothing going on in terms of discussions over changing manager.
Southgate has also done great work in his time in charge of England and will surely get as much time as he wants in the job, so a change doesn’t necessarily seem very likely to happen any time soon.
“Congratulations to England last night as they beat Italy 3-1. I always felt England were the favourites for this game as they are simply on another level with the talent in their squad right now,” Romano said.
“Before the game, there were some reports again of the FA looking at Eddie Howe as a potential replacement in case Gareth Southgate doesn’t stay beyond 2024. Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to see these links coming up in the middle of the season when managers are trying to focus on their jobs, but just how true are these stories?
“Howe has always had many ‘fans’ in the FA, this is true. He’s always been highly rated but there are currently no discussions at all, also because he wants to focus on Newcastle project and he’s only thinking of Newcastle.
“Of course, I think he’d be an excellent candidate for any project, including England but we should respect Newcastle and also Southgate, who continues to do a great job with the national team.”