Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has earned plenty of plaudits since his arrival at St James' Park in 2021, helping to oversee the club's transition from relegation battlers to European challengers almost overnight.
Having taken over with the club in 19th position, Howe guided the Magpies to their first top-four finish in almost two decades in his first full season as manager. He has since established Newcastle as a consistent threat to the European places having developed a squad of shrewd signings into genuinely elite players who regularly draw interest from the elite clubs in Europe.
But things aren't quite so rosy on Tyneside right now. After missing out on signing Marc Guehi over the summer, rumours persist that Howe has fallen out with sporting director Paul Mitchell – and could be one of the first managers to leave his post this season.
Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe tipped for England job
Howe's success made him a sure-fire favourite for the bookmakers' pick to replace Gareth Southgate following his resignation from the national team set-up over the summer.
An exciting, young English manager with a proven track record of getting the best out of players, Howe appears custom-made for the FA's requirements as they continue to ponder their options, with World Cup winner Geoff Hurst telling FourFourTwo exclusively last month that the next Three Lions boss has to be English.
This sentiment is mirrored by both Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville, who went to bat for the 46-year-old on the latest episode of SkyBet's Stick to Football.
“If I were Eddie Howe or his agent, you’d be making noises, or I’d be in touch with [the FA]," Carragher told the panel when asked about the vacant role.
"If that job [the England job] was available, I’d take it. Not just because it’s the England job, but this [fallout with Paul Mitchell] can’t continue, sooner or later one of them would have to walk away if that relationship is broken."
Neville was quick to echo these thoughts, saying: “If I were Eddie Howe, I’d go and look after myself. He’s had a great Premier League career, he’s done fantastic at Newcastle, you’ve almost closed that chapter of their development, England are in a great position with players. He’s going to be working with amazing players – the next step up in Eddie’s career would be England."
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The Three Lions have made an impressive start to life after Southgate, with Lee Carsley taking the reigns on a caretaker basis for the latest round of international fixtures.
Wins over Ireland and Finland, as well as senior debuts for the likes of Angel Gomes, Morgan Gibbs White and Noni Madueke have put the Irish-born manager in good stead to mount a charge for the permanent job.
Will Eddie Howe get the England job?
In FourFourTwo's opinion, Eddie Howe was definitely an option to take over the England job in the aftermath of Southgate's resignation. But unfortunately, it seems like the time could have passed him by already.
Lee Carsley has made a strong start as interim manager and is many people's favourite to keep the job on a permanent basis. The former Republic of Ireland international was surely only given the job temporarily so that the Football Association could wait on the availability of the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp – who FourFourTwo ranked as No.1 and No.2 in our list of the best managers in the world, earlier this year.
Giving the England job to Howe after Carsley has done a good job would risk plenty of backlash – while it would be a lot more understandable to give the role to one of Guardiola or Klopp. While Howe is no doubt an option for the national setup, we think he's somewhere in the Graham Potter tier of choice rather than a nailed on cert for it.
