Toovey slams claims he is on the outer

Manly coach Geoff Toovey has come out swinging over reports he is on the outer at the club and has lost the support of his dressing room.

And Sea Eagles CEO Joe Kelly has backed his coach, denying media claims that the club had approached Parramatta's Brad Arthur or Canterbury's Des Hasler to replace Toovey.

A frustrated Toovey admitted he was "upset" by what he considered attempts to destabilise the club, who are locked in a battle to retain star halves Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran.

"To say I have lost the dressing shed I think is ridiculous," Toovey told The Daily Telegraph.

"I am upset that people would try and discredit this club again and try and create instability.

"You would have to look for the (real) reason why people would want to create such instability.

"Is it forces outside our club trying to create instability so they can poach some of our players?

"The players internally know the untruths about the whole situation."

Toovey's comments came after speculation emerged on Wednesday that Manly had approached Arthur and Hasler for a potential return to replace the Sea Eagles mentor should the side struggle in 2015.

Kelly insisted Toovey, who coached the side to the 2013 grand final and had made the finals in each of his three years at the helm, had full support and would see out his contract, which expires at the end of 2016.

Toovey was also adamant all players - including Brett Stewart - were on board after the upheavals of 2014 when unrest emerged over the club's failure to re-sign popular backrower Glenn Stewart.

"He has been training the house down and he has a great attitude," Toovey said.

"I think we are going to have a big season from him.

"I had a couple of the senior players come in today (following reports he had lost the dressing room) and they said; 'this is crazy, what’s going on'.

"And I said you can’t stop people trying to create instability.

"(The players) are very upset that these things are being written about them but with such a successful club, people do try to bring you down."