Eddie Howe oversaw the most remarkable transformation in English football over the last 20 years. On New Year’s Eve 2008, with the club 91st in the Football League and facing relegation and potential liquidation, Bournemouth named 31-year-old Howe as their caretaker boss.
Three weeks later, he became the youngest permanent manager in English league football. Bournemouth were 10 points from safety and had been knocked out of the FA Cup by Blyth Spartans of the Conference North.
Over the course of the next nine years, Howe took Bournemouth from 23rd in League Two to automatic promotion, did the same thing in League One, spent only two seasons in the Championship before winning the title and, by May 2017, had finished in the top half of the Premier League.
Bournemouth had some money, taken over by Russian businessman Maxim Demin in 2011, but Howe didn’t even spend £500,000 on a player until he was a Championship manager or more than £3.5m on a player until after Premier League promotion.
A man with no first-team managerial experience at the time of his appointment took a club to places nobody ever thought possible from a precarious situation when continued existence was the only aim. The only club that come close to matching Bournemouth’s rapid promotion in recent history are Swansea City; they used five different managers. Howe stands alone. It really doesn’t feel as if we talk about that enough.
Why is that? Is it because football moves so fast that there is an inevitable focus on what will come next rather than what came before? Is it because it eventually went sour at Bournemouth – culminating in relegation – and because Premier League performance holds such a sway over football coverage in this country? Is it because Howe’s transfer record was much-criticised? Is it because Bournemouth never really coped with the art of Premier League defending, conceding at least 60 goals in each top-flight season?
If so, there are answers to every point. Bournemouth did make missteps in the transfer market, but Howe was only a cog in the wheel. In his single season at Burnley, he signed Junior Stanislas, Danny Ings, Kieran Trippier and Ben Mee for a combined £2m and at Bournemouth he flourished when picking players from relative obscurity and improving them: Harry Arter from Woking, Ryan Fraser from Aberdeen, Matt Ritchie from Swindon.
Bournemouth’s defending was often haphazard, but in their final season in the Premier League the regular back four contained three players – Steve Cook, Simon Francis and Adam Smith – that formed part of their Championship starting XI. Howe’s 18 months at Burnley were not successful, but he suffered the shock death of his mother and, in a job far away from the south coast, became homesick.
When managers such as Howe choose to take a break, their vision is of sitting, breathing a little and waiting for a Premier League chairman to call. The reality can be different. The longer you are out of the game, the more you become a little forgotten. Chris Wilder did a miraculous job at Sheffield United before that went wrong (not entirely dissimilar to Howe at Bournemouth) and he has just been appointed by the team 14th in the Championship.
More than any of that, Howe’s problem was that he stayed at one club for so long. That sounds bizarre in an age when sensible clubs crave long-termism, but holds true. We like to praise managers for their loyalty, but it can easily become a curse. English football offers far less chance of promotion for domestic coaches than other major European leagues (the Bundesliga in particular). We have manufactured a tier system in which we cannot envisage a Bournemouth manager coaching, say, Arsenal; once a middle-tier manager, always a middle-tier manager. That is exacerbated by the financial draw of the Premier League to foreign coaches. Howe was favourite for the Everton job but missed out to Rafael Benitez.
Newcastle United were captivated by that same notion. They clearly pursued Unai Emery and presumably would have appointed him were it not for Emery’s eventual decision to stay at Villarreal. That decision has opened the door for Howe, who was always reported to have been in the final two. It is hard to imagine two more different coaches making the final shortlist, but Newcastle at least have the certainty that their season is desperately craving after confirming Howe’s appointment on Monday.
To some extent, every managerial appointment is a leap into the unknown. A football club is a complicated blend of interconnected personalities, relationships, egos and processes. Outside of a few truly elite managers – and even they have exceptions – there are no guarantees. But what makes this one so fascinating is that it brings together a manager who we know little about outside Bournemouth and a club whose short-term future is so bafflingly uncertain, for reasons good and bad.
You can simultaneously make a case for Howe being a perfect fit that offers answers – he brings players together, he is a hands-on coach, he achieved a miracle at a lesser club than Newcastle – or a clunky one that raises questions – can he spend money wisely? Can he improve the defence? Can anyone truly cope in this bizarro world of infinite wealth and mediocre on-pitch quality? Good luck to anyone who can confidently predict what happens next. And that includes Newcastle United’s owners and Eddie Howe.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/300gYqH
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