Would United target Eddie Howe just to get to Aké and Brooks?

The Daily Express was happy to plaster Eddie Howe's name all over the summer vacancy at Manchester United yesterday. The Bournemouth manager must be getting quite used to being linked with top vacancies especially with Danny Murphy piping up again to try and give Howe an exit visa from AFCB, even if he doesn't want it.

Eddie Howe is getting used to being linked to other jobs.

Bournemouth fans might have thought that the managerial swoops for Eddie Howe would start to cool off after the drop in form that the Cherries have had and their poor record against the top six this season that have yielded no points at all. On the contrary, United want a manager to develop their youth players and see Howe as a perfect fit.

What would worry me about such a development would not only be the snatching of Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall from the club, but also the star players that have carefully been gathered at Dean Court like David Brooks, Callum Wilson and Nathan Aké. As United are going to find it hard to pull some of these players away while Howe is at Bournemouth, they could try and go for the clean sweep by grabbing Eddie first.

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The Englishman might like to see a manager such as Gareth Southgate or Eddie Howe at United, and the papers have a way of testing the waters with these 'outsider' headlines to see if there is a reaction to a suggested managerial change. But Howe has not done well enough this season to put his name in the first three for the Man United job in my view. United can go for just about any manager in the world and they would have to look first at managers with Champions League experience and cup success before assessing other options. Well, at least I hope that is so. The conspiracy theory of it being a plot to take away some of Bournemouth's top players at the same time doesn't bare thinking about!