FORMER Cherries boss Eddie Howe is the current bookmakers’ favourite to become the next England manager.

The Football Association are searching for a successor to Gareth Southgate, who stood down this week after eight years at the helm, during which he reached two European Championship finals and a World Cup semi-final.

Howe, who piloted Cherries all the way up from League Two into the Premier League, is currently head coach of Newcastle United.

At the time of writing, SkyBet currently have the 46-year-old as the 2/1 favourite for the job, narrowly ahead of Graham Potter (5/2), who has been out of work since leaving Chelsea last April.

Current England under-21s boss Lee Carsley (10/3) is third on the list, before a drop down to other candidates such as Frank Lampard (8/1), Jurgen Klopp (8/1) and Mauricio Pochettino (12/1).

Former Cherries boss Gary O’Neil, now at Wolves, is available at 40/1.

 

Asked if Newcastle would fight to keep Howe were there to be an approach from the FA, the club’s chief executive Darren Eales said: “Yes, absolutely.

“We’re on an exciting journey and, as far as we’re concerned, Eddie is the man to lead us on that.

“In any organisation, if you are performing well there will be speculation from other clubs. But Eddie is under a long-term contract with the club.

“You see him, he loves the day-to-day of club football and we have an exciting project here in terms of the commitment from the ownership and the journey we want to go on. We are really excited about this season ahead.

“He’s a great developer of players. He gets the psyche of the club, and Newcastle, and the fans. We’ve seen that with the way the team and the supporters have that affinity.

“For us, he is exactly the right man for the project we are on at Newcastle United and that is why we are committed to a long-term deal with him. That’s why we think he’s the right man for Newcastle. We love him.”

Asked if he saw Howe being in the Newcastle dugout for the first game of the new Premier League season in August, Eales replied: “Absolutely, yes.”

Eales said there was not a “set number” for compensation, but that some sort of payment would have to be made as for any employee of the club under a multi-year contract.

Howe joined Newcastle in November 2021, guiding them away from the relegation zone before finishes of fourth and seventh in the Premier League in his two full seasons in charge so far.