Former Newcastle man rejects Champions League move as reunion suggested

Eddie Howe's Next Move: Lens Rebuff, Premier League Pressure and Why Newcastle Still Looms Large Eddie Howe is out of work, by choice, and that usually changes the way people talk about a manager. The assumption is that if he is available, he must be waiting by the phone.

According to Chronicle Live, Howe has already turned down one route back into football, rejecting Lens after the Ligue 1 side moved on from Dino Toppmoller in September. That matters, because it tells you this is not a man taking the first respectable offer put in front of him.

He was not pushed out in a blaze of dysfunction, nor was he hanging on. The split came after a shift in transfer policy, with Newcastle bringing in Bazoumana Toure, Aladji Bamba and Sean Steur, and with Howe understood not to have full control over that spending.

Managers can live with many things. What they rarely accept for long is reduced authority with full accountability still attached.

Eddie Howe waiting for right opening Sources close to Howe say he is in no rush to return. That sounds sensible rather than strategic.

Football has a way of creating vacancies quickly, especially at clubs where ambition and patience are permanently out of balance. Right now, that leaves attention on Michael Carrick at Manchester United and Alvaro Arbeloa at Fulham, both described as under pressure.

Add Tottenham into the usual managerial churn and you can see why Howe may feel no need to jump at Lens, or anyone else for that matter. The betting markets have reacted in the predictable way.

Howe is 2/1 for Manchester United if Carrick goes, 9/1 for Tottenham if Roberto De Zerbi comes under even greater scrutiny, and 11/1 for Wrexham in what would be a wildly ambitious move. Fine, but odds are not insight.

They reflect noise as much as probability. Howe's departure from St James' Park clearly retained an emotional edge, and any return with another club would be met warmly.