EDDIE Howe insists his preparations for Cherries' trip to Watford have not been knocked off track by the renewed furore around the England manager's job.

Howe has been tipped as a potential successor to Sam Allardyce, who left the post on Tuesday after footage emerged of him allegedly discussing ways to circumnavigate FA rules on third-party player ownership.

The Cherries boss was linked with the England role following Roy Hodgson's resignation in June and despite the issue resurfacing this week, Howe insists his focus is purely on Vicarage Road tomorrow.

Howe told the Daily Echo: "I’m watching Watford this week in any spare moment I get. I’m focusing on our training and this (Allardyce losing his job) was not something I wanted to see at all.

"When you’re in the Premier League, it’s so intense. The games come so quickly. If you don’t get your training right you’re not going to win games. I’ve not given England a minute’s thought."

Asked if he enjoys being touted for this country's premier football job, Howe outlined his motives for pursuing his particular trade.

He said: "No, I don’t enjoy it. For me, the reason I wanted to be a football manager was to coach. To build a team. To try to win games, to have that competition against other teams. To try to inspire your players to reach levels they never knew they could hit.

"All this side of it, it gets in the way a little bit. As much as it’s a big part of the job, my main focus is always the football."

Cherries will encounter a Watford side whose fortunes have been remarkably similar to their own across the past two seasons.

The teams were promoted together from the Championship in 2014-15 and were then separated by only three points as they comfortably survived in the top flight last season.

The two sides each have seven points from their opening six games this term but there is nevertheless a striking difference in the manner in which the clubs operate. Current Watford boss Walter Mazzarri is the seventh man to have taken on that assignment since Howe returned to Cherries in October 2012.

Furthermore, the Hornets owners, the Pozzo family, also count Italian club Udinese and Spanish outfit Granada among their footballing portfolio.

"I think Watford’s model is totally different (to Cherries' model)," said Howe. "But it goes to show that one model isn’t the only way to go.

"They’ve changed their managers regularly. They have a unique way of recruiting players with the different clubs they have around the world. And they build a real mix of nationalities and put them out together as team.

"But they do it very well. And they’ve always kept a similar philosophy to how they play and it’s always got them success. So full credit to Watford and what they’ve done.

"I think it’s the most difficult way to do it, because they have to blend in new players all the time and build that team spirit. But they’ve managed to do it.

"We have sort of followed each other. In the promotion year it was very tight. Last year we weren’t far away from each other. And this year we’ve started in similar fashion.

It’s always intriguing when you come up against the teams you’ve had that history with – to see where they are and where we are. It’ll be a good test for us on Saturday, for sure."