José Mourinho is targeting the Newcastle job if Eddie Howe leaves St James’ Park. The Fenerbahce head coach has unfinished business in the Premier League and has identified Newcastle as his best chance of another job in England, having managed Chelsea twice, Manchester United and Tottenham.
Mourinho made clear his unhappiness in Turkey with an extraordinary rant after Fenerbahce’s 3-2 win over Trabzonspor last Sunday. The Portuguese joined the club only last summer after being sacked by Roma in January but is eyeing other potential opportunities.
Mourinho is understood to have reached out to intermediaries asking to be kept abreast of any developments at Newcastle. The 61-year-old met Newcastle’s chairman, Yasir al-Rumayyan, at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in a social capacity in March and has maintained the connection.
In another sign of his itchy feet Mourinho was on charm offensive when United were in Istanbul for their Europa League game last month, greeting old colleagues and English journalists in the manner of long-lost friends.
Howe is not under immediate pressure and has been buoyed up by back-to-back victories over Chelsea and Arsenal after a difficult start to the season, but is not guaranteed long-term job security given the ambitions of Newcastle’s Saudi owners, who want the club in the Champions League. The 46-year-old lost two crucial allies when the directors Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi left last summer, and there has been tension with sporting director, Paul Mitchell, who was appointed in July.
Newcastle had gone five Premier League games without a win before beating Arsenal last Saturday and their league position of 11th is not good enough for the owners. Howe is expected to have Newcastle in the mix for European qualification despite the financial issues that forced them to sell several young players last June to avoid a breach of profitability and sustainability rules.
Mourinho’s tirade last weekend was triggered by refereeing decisions that led to Fenerbahce conceding two penalties and being denied a strong penalty appeal, but he also took aim at Turkish football in general.
“Nobody abroad wants to watch the Turkish league,” he said. “Who wants to watch this Turkish league abroad? They have the Premier League, they have the French league, they have the German league, they have the Portuguese league, they have the Dutch league. Why should they see this? … It’s too grey, it’s too dark, smells bad. But that’s my job, and I will give everything to my job, to my club.”
Howe has no intention of leaving Newcastle any time soon. Marking his third anniversary in the job on Friday he 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.”
Howe could have done with still having Elliot Anderson in his squad but the 22-year-old midfielder, a product of the academy, will be on the opposing side when Newcastle visit Nottingham Forest on Sunday, having been sold because of PSR.
Anderson is eligible to play for England and Scotland but has opted to target a place in Thomas Tuchel’s squad next year. “Without a shadow of a doubt Elliot can play for England in the future,” said Howe. “He has the ability to get wherever he wants to go. England is a big aim for him and I see that in his future, definitely. Elliot is a sale we didn’t want to make. I don’t understand the rationale behind PSR rules incentivising the sale of academy products.”
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