Fabrizio Romano has been speaking on Rio Ferdinand’s FIVE YouTube channel about who Newcastle United tried to appoint before Eddie Howe.
The Magpies appeared to make it very public that they were targeting and speaking with Unai Emery to become their new manager, only for the Villareal boss to reject them in favour of staying with the Champions League club, which then saw them land former Bournemouth manager Howe.
Will Howe succeed at Newcastle?
Yes!
No!
It appears that those two were not the only options that Newcastle explored as they were linked with a double swoop for Ajax key figures Marc Overmars and Erik ten Hag, although neither of them appeared very convinced over the chance to manage a club second bottom in the Premier League.
Romano has revealed what other candidates Newcastle’s owners looked at.
(21:26) “They were trying for so many others because the dream was Antonio Conte but it was impossible, the other dream they had was Ten Hag with Marc Overmars as director but it was impossible, they said no.
“Unai Emery we know it was very close but then at the end, he decided to stay and Paulo Fonseca had a verbal agreement with Newcastle and it collapsed so they were trying with many managers.”
TIF Thoughts on Newcastle’ managerial search…
If Newcastle were targeting people such as Ten Hag and now Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte, they may well have been barking up the wrong tree given their credentials in the game and for Ten Hag, there would be very little benefit to him leaving Ajax who are top of the Eredivisie and their Champions League group.
Now though, the club and fans have Howe at the helm and they’ll be hoping that he can turn things around on Tyneside given they’re the only team winless in the Premier League, but do face Burnley, Norwich and Brentford in their next four fixtures so their season could truly start after the international break.
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