Howe breaks silence on MU links after club legends backed him to succeed Amorim

Eddie Howe has ruled himself out of contention for the vacant Manchester United job, after support from a flurry of former players.

Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes are among those to have championed the cause of the Newcastle boss, while Gary Neville is another admirer.

But Howe says he is happy on Tyneside and, tellingly, he has pointed to his new relationships with the club’s hierarchy as reason for his contentment. Ruben Amorim was sacked this week amid tension with Manchester United’s director of football Jason Wilcox.

In September, Newcastle appointed David Hopkinson as chief executive and Ross Wilson as sporting director. Howe had not enjoyed a good relationship with Wilson’s predecessor, Paul Mitchell.

When asked if he could be tempted by Manchester United, Howe said: ‘No, not at this current time. The most important thing for me is happiness in the role, happiness in the job, the relationships I have with the people around me.

‘Now, that’s not always been consistently good and things can change at any football club.

'But, at the moment, I am very happy. We have made some great appointments in the roles we needed to fill and, as long as I can express myself in the best way possible, the best version of myself to help the players and the club (I’ll stay).

'Because ultimately, for any club to be successful, there has to be unity from top to bottom and a good feeling between everybody. I’ve had an unbelievable relationship with the board here since I’ve come to the club and that’s never changed.

'I consider myself very lucky to have that because there are very few managers that have the time to build those relationships and to have the confidence and trust within each other.

'I think that is really important and if you have all those things, you have a higher chance of being successful. I’m very happy and I hope that continues for a long time.’

Howe, who was also linked with Chelsea last week, added: ‘Nothing has changed from my perspective. I'm 100 per cent here, working as hard as I can, head down, ignoring all the stuff that you guys write good or bad, because it's irrelevant.

‘It's about today's work and trying to prepare the team as well as we can for Leeds (on Wednesday), so that will never change from my perspective, my commitment to my work and my job. As long as I'm happy and able to express myself in the best way that I can to help the team, nothing will change.’