He's been installed as the hot favourite to take the sofa of ITV’s ailing Daybreak breakfast show, but Eamonn Holmes was playing his cards close to his chest in Manchester yesterday.

TV presenter Eamonn was here to support his beloved Manchester United’s charity foundation, by hosting a glitzy ladies lunch with his glamorous presenter wife Ruth Langsford.

But The Diary couldn’t resist asking Eamonn what he made of the tipsters reckoning it will be him and newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky being lined up to take over from presenters Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles in the new year.

So what does Eamonn, currently Sky News’s Sunrise host, make of the rumours?

Eamonn smiled: “I’m the longest serving breakfast presenter in the country, so I’d like to think I’d be in the frame.”

But has he been approached?

“In this business you get enquiries and approaches all the time,” he chuckled.

And what of the fact he’s the odds-on favourite with the bookies? “Hmm, does someone have insider info?” he smirks.

Oh Eamonn!

We reckon he’d be perfect for the job, if his performance at the charity lunch was anything to go by – he had the ladies in stitches as he larked about.

He’s got the week off his Sunrise duties, so he and Ruth will be making the most of their time by heading to tonight’s Champions League match against Benfica.

Ruth tells me she’s now a keen United fan like her hubby – although it didn’t quite start out that way. She laughs: “I feigned a bit more interest in United than was really the case when we first started going out!

“But I soon discovered what a great atmosphere there is here. It also helped that the first game I came to they won 6-0.”

Eamonn and Ruth present ITV’s This Morning every Friday, although they say there are no plans to do any further presenting work as a couple.

Eamonn said: “We would quite like to do a quiz show as presenters, like Mr & Mrs.”

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