Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe says he was not contacted by the Football Association during their recent hunt for a new England manager.
FA Chief Executive Mark Bullingham said they had “interviewed approximately 10 people” including “some English candidates” before appointing German former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel.
Howe, one of only three English managers currently in the Premier League, confirmed on Friday he was not among those spoken to.
Asked if he was interviewed for the England job, he said: “I was not. There was no contact from the FA.”
Questioned on whether this bothered him, Howe said: “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. I am certainly not the type of person that is going to analyse that.
“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.”
The FA have declined to comment on Howe’s remarks.
Tuchel’s appointment was confirmed on Wednesday, making him the third non-Englishman to coach the Three Lions.
Howe said he would have preferred an English coach to have been given the job but was full of praise for the 51-year-old.
He shadowed Tuchel for a couple of days while the German was manager of Chelsea and said he had learned a lot from the man who guided the Blues to the Champions League title in 2021.
“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,” Howe, 46, said.
“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.”
It is not known whether Howe’s agents and representatives were spoken to by the FA regarding the England job.
On Wednesday, Bullingham told BBC Sport: “Any federation will always want to look at an appointment like this and have a really strong candidate pool of five to 10 domestic candidates who are winning trophies at both club and international level.
“We’re not in that position at the moment.
“We’ve got a really strong talent pipeline of young coaches. What’s important is they get the opportunities to prove their worth.”
Tuchel’s appointment as a non-English manager of the men’s England team – following Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello – has raised questions about the pathway for English managers to elite level jobs.
Former Newcastle and England striker Alan Shearer said on Wednesday he was “surprised” Howe had not been approached by the FA.
When asked if he was comfortable with Tuchel being appointed, Shearer told The Rest Is Football podcast: “If he is the outstanding candidate, yeah. But what would be a little bit of a concern is the pathway for English coaches.”
He added: “I’m happy in a way because Newcastle are not losing their manager. [Howe] is an outstanding manager and would have been the main English candidate for me. To know he has not even been sounded out is very surprising.”
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta said though he understood disappointment the FA had not chosen an English candidate, the country should be proud that a high-profile overseas coach like Tuchel was interested and proud of how welcoming England is to overseas bosses generally.
“I think I would take a lot of pride that a lot of managers, a lot of people, would do anything to become the England manager,” the Spaniard said.
“And that’s related to, as foreigners, how we are treated in this country. How much we love the passion, the respect, the history and the way things are done in this country.”
Source: BBC SPORT
