At one stage in October last year, Paulo Fonseca was the 8/15 favourite to be named the new Newcastle United manager following Steve Bruce’s dismissal.
Sky Sports claimed that he’d held ‘remote talks’ with our new owners, saying the 49-year-old was one of the contenders – alongside Eddie Howe and Lucien Favre – to land the job.
As we know, it ended up going to Eddie Howe, but Fonseca has now revealed that he was “very close” to beating the former Bournemouth boss to it during an interview with the Italian press.
Speaking to Il Romanista, here’s what the Portuguese coach had to say when asked about his ongoing pursuit of a Premier League job:
“Today in England, there are the best teams and the best football in the world,”
“At the beginning of the season, I was very close to Tottenham, but that didn’t materialise, as well as with Newcastle.
“Let’s see in the future; I think it will happen.
“Everyone would love to work in England to experience the fantastic atmosphere there. It’s something you can’t find in another country.”
So, he’s been close to landing TWO Premier League jobs over the past 12 months, also revealing that he was nearly named the Tottenham boss last year, yet remains confident he’ll be managing in England one day.
Given how well Eddie Howe has done since arriving on Tyneside, it’s probably a good job our new owners opted for him instead of the former Roma boss!
I believe he was looked at and probably spoken to – but the situation we were in with the relegation battle, and Howes prior experience of that with Bmth, I think Eddie was always ahead.
Regardless, Howe is the fella that finds himself in the hot seat, and I don’t imagine too many fans are disappointed he is – or wishing Fonseca or Emery win out ahead of him.
Sharpy17(Quote)