Jose Mourinho is targeting a Premier League return and believes he has unfinished business in England.
The Special One is currently managing Turkish giants Fenerbahce but has made no secret at his unhappiness in his current role.
Despite having turned 61 earlier this year, Mourinho appears to have lost none of combustibility and combative edge and has been involved in several bizarre moments already this season.
Last month the former Chelsea boss was handed a yellow card for holding a laptop up to a television camera in an attempt to prove a goal should not have been disallowed and last week launched into an extraordinary rant over the state of Turkish football.
‘Nobody abroad wants to watch the Turkish league,’ he said after watching his team suffer in the wake of several controversial refereeing decisions.
‘Who wants to watch this Turkish league abroad? They have the Premier League, they have the French league, they have the German league, they have the Portuguese league, they have the Dutch league.
‘Why should they see this? … It’s too grey, it’s too dark, smells bad.But that’s my job, and I will give everything to my job, to my club.’
According to the Guardian, Mourinho has already singled out Newcastle United as his next club, even though Eddie Howe’s position is not currently under threat.
Howe, overlooked for the England job in favour of Thomas Tuchel, presided over a difficult start to the new campaign, but last week’s win over Arsenal, combined with a return to form and fitness for talisman Alexander Isak has put a different complexion on the mood at St James’ Park.
‘We are looking at improvements this year,’ said Howe, speaking ahead of this weekend’s game against high-flying Nottingham Forest.
‘Consistency is a big, big word for us. Not the most interesting response, I know, but these are the things that we judge ourselves by.
‘I think, if we can find that ability to win games and put a sequence of results together, the Premier League is so tight, it can really change the feeling.’
Even so, Mourinho is understood to have reached out to intermediaries asking to be kept abreast of any developments at Newcastle.
Newcastle’s chairman, Yasir al-Rumayyan, met Mourinho at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix back in March and the pair are said to have remained in touch.
MORE : ‘I signed for Man Utd and I had no one up there apart from my PlayStation’
MORE : Emmanuel Petit snubs Cole Palmer and names the Chelsea star he’d want Arsenal to sign
MORE : Eintracht Frankfurt send message to Liverpool over Omar Marmoush transfer