Right, let's do this: Who could take over if Eddie Howe leaves Newcastle for England role
Ever since the news broke that Gareth Southgate had stepped down as England manager Eddie Howe's name has been thrown around as his possible successor.
We've tried to ignore it and just ride it out because we're not ready to lose Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi AND Eddie Howe all in one summer.
At one point today I got a text asking who I thought would take over if Howe went and my reply was simply: "I'm not entertaining the idea that Eddie Howe is leaving".
I stand by the theory that it's simply too soon for Eddie Howe to step away from club football and take up international management, but there's always a chance.
Six managers who could end up at St James' Park should Howe leave
So, with that in mind, should the unthinkable happen, who then comes in to take Newcastle United forward?
There is already plenty of talk around Mauricio Pochettino as there always seems to be. He was on the shortlist before Eddie Howe was appointed according to several outlets at the time, and no doubt his name would appear again if the Magpies found themselves without a manager.
Graham Potter is still my favourite to take over the England job (surely he's been turning down club offers for a reason), but should Eddie Howe get the job ahead of him, could Potter have a crack at Newcastle? He seemed out of his depth at Chelsea, but everyone who goes to Chelsea looks out of their depth because the club is run like an asylum. I mean, they had a good season last time out and they still sacked Pochettino and brought in the guy who just got Leicester promoted. What is going on?
This one nearly made me vomit, but the bookies have mentioned him so I feel duty-bound to do so too: Gareth Southgate. I'm not comfortable using expletives here so I'll just move on. Suffice to say, it's a no from us.
There is one potential candidate we'd consider
One name that came out of left field, actually in that aforementioned text message, was Ralf Rangnick who is currently the coach at Austria after failing to impress at Manchester United. I'm not sure I see that one happening.
Even though he's just taken up a new job, if Newcastle had a vacancy you just know that Jose Mourinho will be linked, but as I say, he's barely even got his feet under the desk at Fenerbahce.
Perhaps the one most likely to be approached, given that the rumours were pretty strong just a couple of months ago that we wanted him, would be Roberto Mancini, and if we were going to replace Howe, then I don't think we could do much better than Mancini.
Just to make it abundantly clear, I, nor anyone else at NUFCfeed want Eddie Howe gone, we hope he tells The FA where to go if they come knocking, but we have to be prepared for the worst, and should the worst happen, there's always Mancini.
