EDDIE HOWE insists he will dictate his own future at Newcastle United despite this week’s speculation linking the club with a possible move for Julian Nagelsmann.

Reports in the German media suggested that Nagelsmann was being lined up for a switch to Tyneside after leading the German national side in this summer’s European Championships.

Howe’s position as Newcastle head coach has been questioned in some quarters in the last few weeks, with the Magpies having slipped to tenth position in the Premier League ahead of tomorrow’s home game with Wolves.

The 46-year-old is known to retain the full support of Tyneside-based co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, but the thinking of Magpies chairman Yasir al-Rummayan and other key figures in the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which is the club’s majority owner, is much more difficult to ascertain.

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Nevertheless, Howe maintains he has his destiny in his own hands, and is clearly determined to do everything he can to hold on to his current position at St James’ Park.

“Genuinely, it (the rumours around his job) doesn’t affect me,” said the Magpies boss. “I’m here, I’m sat in the seat, and my future will be defined by what I do, no one else.

“It’s up to me to continually prove myself. I back myself and my ability. I know what I bring to the job, and I have ambitions for the team and the club, and I can’t control what people write and what speculation there is. I don’t try to get involved in it.”

Nevertheless, Howe is buoyed by the support and understanding he has received from those around him during what has proved to be a difficult campaign.

The Magpies boss has had to contend with a crippling injury list that exacerbated the effects of a packed fixture list in the first half of the campaign, but has still guided his side into the FA Cup quarter-finals and taken them to a position where European qualification via the league remains a realistic possibility in the final two-and-a-half months of the season.

“It’s difficult for me to speak for the people above me,” said Howe. “But I have felt a support and an understanding for the season that we have had and things that have been thrown at us and things that have happened.

“That's really important from my side that I do feel that support. I'm not going to try and put words in people's mouths or anything like that, but I think they have seen from afar how difficult this season has been.”