When Eddie Howe was named manager of the year by the League Managers’ Association in May, his agent told him to take the trophy to the toilets with him that evening, reasoning it was likely to be the only time that the man who had just won promotion to the Premier League with Bournemouth would stop to look at his prestigious award and contemplate what he had achieved.
Six months on and everything has turned out as predicted. “I remember him saying something like that to me at the time,” Howe says, laughing at the story. “That award, I think, is the nicest thing that has ever happened to me. It’s something that I’ll look back on one day and think: ‘Wow, did I really win that?’ But I haven’t looked at it since. The future is the only thing that matters.”
Howe would not have the time, never mind the inclination, to bask in his own success. A self-confessed workaholic, he is up at the crack of dawn every day and lucky to get home in time to read a bedtime story (more about the intriguing choice of book later) to Harry, his four-year-old son.
While the job consumes him, there is no ego to sit alongside the reputation he has carved out as one of the brightest managerial prospects in the game. A humble and affable man, Howe already has three promotions on his CV, across two spells at Bournemouth, and it is remarkable to think that Saturday’s visit of Newcastle United will be his 345th game as a manager. He does not celebrate his 38th birthday until the end of the month.
Praise is not hard to find but Howe never goes looking for it – “I’m not one of those people who tries to see how they’re perceived by anybody” – and he was totally oblivious to the fact that Gary Lineker had described him as “the English Special One” in April until his wife, Vicky, flagged it up.
“I’m not on Twitter, I wouldn’t even know how to access it,” Howe says, smiling. “My reaction was that it was nice that he knew who I was, because I’ve watched Gary Lineker in World Cups, he was one of my idols – I’m not just saying that now to sound good. And I think when you’ve had the journey I’ve had, playing career nonexistent, really, and you’re trying to forge a managerial career, for some of the top people in your profession to acknowledge you exist is a nice feeling.”
After all the plaudits last season, the question that many people had on the eve of this campaign was whether Howe, with his entertaining brand of free-flowing, attacking football, would be able to cut it in the Premier League with a club the size of Bournemouth. A big ask before a ball had been kicked, the task feels considerably harder on the back of a desperately unlucky, almost freakish, run of serious injuries to key players.
At the start of September Bournemouth lost Tyrone Mings and Max Gradel, their two most expensive signings, to cruciate ligament injuries picked up in the same game, ruling them out for 12 and six months respectively. Little more than three weeks later, and at a time when he was pushing for an England call-up after scoring five times in his first six Premier League matches, Callum Wilson ruptured his cruciate ligament. A few days later, Tommy Elphick, the captain, underwent ankle surgery that will sideline him until the new year. The list goes on – Christian Atsu, on loan from Chelsea, is back at Stamford Bridge recovering from a stress fracture and has yet to make a league appearance.
“Cruel bad luck,” Howe says. “Our gut feeling was that Tyrone had a serious one but Max, we hoped, would be a matter of weeks. To get told on the same day that Tyrone was going to be a year and Max six months, that was a black day. But then to lose Callum a few weeks later, in the manner that we did, was really tough.
“He was flying and he’s such a key component to our team. You’re never reliant on one player but his attributes were, as a starting point, so important to how we played, both on and off the ball. So it’s not just one aspect of the game that you have to totally change, it’s two. And they’re the only two things that matter in football – when you have the ball and when you don’t have the ball, so we’ve almost had to go back to square one.”
In the case of Mings, Gradel and Wilson, Bournemouth felt compelled to delve deeper. “We’ve shown the footage to a couple of experts in knee injuries and we also did some work with the ground and the pitches to see whether that was a cause,” Howe says. “The feedback we had from everyone, when we analysed the tackles and got close-ups, was there was nothing we could do and they were just bad luck.
“Now, the pitches might have been a contributing factor because they’re hard underneath and studs have got caught in the ground and haven’t had that give that you need. But even so, I think we have to put it down to occurrences and move on.”
That is easier said than done. Plenty of managers harp on about injuries and it is tempting to wonder how other clubs, at both ends of the table, would cope with similar misfortune. Although still one place and one point above the relegation zone, and lifted by Harry Arter’s return to fitness, Bournemouth are enduring a tough time and Howe could be forgiven for pointing to the injuries as a legitimate excuse for the season quickly turning into a struggle.
“You can have that on the backburner if you see it like that. If you want the excuse, it’s there. But I tend to look at it different,” he says. “First, I don’t really talk about the injuries to the media – I’m obviously doing this to you because it’s more of a reflective piece. I certainly don’t talk about the injuries to the players, and for me it’s as if it’s never happened.
“I judge the team knowing what it is capable of from what I see, not because we’re missing players. So for me, it’s not an excuse – that can be a state of mind that can be a real negative track that you can’t escape from, you could blame everything on that. The reality is we’re where we are at the moment because of ourselves, not because of players missing through injury. We haven’t performed well enough and we’ve made some individual mistakes.”
The perception among some will be that this is Howe’s first major test but the reality is rather different. He talks about enduring a tough time in charge at Burnley, where he spent 21 months before returning to Bournemouth after finding it difficult to be away from his family following the death of his mother, Annie.
Then there was the 2012-13 season, when Howe remembers how “everyone was saying the wheels have come off” after Bournemouth lost five successive games. Howe’s team won their next eight and secured automatic promotion from League One.
Nothing, however, compares to the situation that Howe found himself in at the end of 2008, when he took over as Bournemouth manager at the age of 31. Bournemouth were seven points adrift in League Two, the bailiffs spent almost as much time in the club shop as the supporters, players were not getting paid and there was the constant threat of liquidation. Howe, somehow, masterminded their survival.
“I remember my emotions after those games were so extreme,” Howe says. “If we won, there was a feeling that we could do it. If we lost, it really felt like it was the end of the world. We knew we had to do it for the club to exist, so the pressure of those last few games … I’ve never felt pressure like that since.”
While his dedication to the job has not changed – Howe says that it would be “counterproductive to my wellbeing” to put in any more hours – life has moved on in other respects. He has two young sons, Harry and Rocky, who is 14 months old, and one of his biggest challenges is trying to find some sort of work-life balance to see them grow up.
“It’s the most difficult part of the job. You need a really supportive wife, who understands how hard I want to work, how desperate to be successful I am, and then she needs to make sacrifices in order for me to be able to do my job properly. So I’m very thankful to her for enabling me to do that. Then I do think that it’s important that when you do see the children, that you’re totally there with them, which I’m going to be honest and say I’m not, because I’m still thinking about other things, so I’m doing a bloody useless job!”
Even finding time to read, which Howe has always enjoyed, is difficult these days.
“I’ve got about four books by my bed. I’ve got Sir Alex Ferguson’s new book, which I’m desperate to read. We’ve produced a book, which I haven’t got round to opening yet but I’m keen to read, and there are a couple of other psychological books.”
With regard to the latter, Howe is a huge fan of John Wooden. “He’s always by my bed. He’s one of my main inspirations. He was a basketball coach and won title after title with his college teams. I find his way of talking and his view on life – it’s not just sport – to be so good. He produced a series of books, not just adult books, there’s one that I actually read my boy at night, which is really good. It’s about the pyramid of success and what goes into making successful people, so he’s being brought up on that.”
Given that Harry is only four, Howe’s answer is met with a look of surprise, as well as an admission that maybe the rest of us are getting it wrong with Fireman Sam. “Well, to be honest, he doesn’t like [John Wooden] too much but we force it on him!” Howe says, laughing loudly. “He wants Fireman Sam! But I think if you get ‘em in early, then it’s good.”
Howe has proved to be a quick learner himself and it is a measure of how much his stock has risen over the past 12 months that his name is often mentioned as a potential England manager one day. Not that he has any time for that sort of talk at the moment.
“I’ve won two Premier League games,” Howe says, with a smile and look of incredulity, “so from my perspective, I have to be dismissive of it. It’s not that I wouldn’t be hugely honoured to manage my country, it’s just a case of realistically knowing where I’m at at this stage of my career. I’ve got it all to prove. I’ve got it all to do. And I’ve got it all to learn.”
Seven young managers who are helping to change the face of coaching
Garry Monk, 36 Swansea City
Having spent a decade at Swansea as a centre-back, Monk was handed his first managerial job by the club in February 2014. He took over from Michael Laudrup with the club battling relegation and steered them safely away from the drop zone as they finished 12th. In his first full season he led the club to eighth, their highest Premier League finish. Although Swansea have won only one of their past seven league games they are six points clear of the bottom three.
Alex Neil, 34 Norwich City
Neil was made manager of Hamilton Academicals, aged 31, in May 2013. In his first full season he oversaw promotion to the Scottish Premiership. Hamilton had an impressive start in the top flight, including a win at Celtic, before Norwich hired him in January this year. The Scot steered the Canaries into the Championship play-offs, defeating Ipswich and then, in the final, winning 2-0 against Middlesbrough to return to the Premier League.
Karl Robinson, 35 MK Dons
Robinson took over at MK Dons aged 30 in May 2010. In his first two seasons in charge they reached the League One play-off semi-finals, losing to Peterborough and then Huddersfield. After finishing outside the top six in the two subsequent seasons, Robinson led them to the Championship when his side finished runners-up in League One last season. They also recorded a memorable 4-0 Capital One Cup second-round win over Manchester United in August last year.
Luke Garrard, 30 Boreham Wood
Garrard became the youngest manager in the England’s top five divisions when he was appointed manager of National League side Boreham Wood last month. He had served as assistant to Ian Allinson, who resigned. His start has been difficult, with his side only picking up only a point from his first two league two games. He has, however, led the club into the FA Cup first round, with a 2-1 win over AFC Hornchurch earning a tie at Northwich Victoria today.
André Villas-Boas, 38 Zenit Saint Petersburg
The Portuguese won the treble at Porto in 2011, prompting comparisons with José Mourinho. After enduring a tough time in the Premier League, first at Chelsea and then Tottenham, he moved to Russia and won the league in his first full season in charge of Zenit. Despite this success, steering his team to a perfect 12 points from 12 in this season’s Champions League and, with it, a place in the last 16, he has said he will leave when his contract expires at the end of this season.
Marco Silva, 38 Olympiakos
Silva was appointed Estoril manager at 34 with the club 10th in Portugal’s second division, and secured promotion. After finishing fifth and then fourth in the top flight he left for Sporting. Silva led the Lisbon club to the Portuguese Cup and a third-place finish but was sacked after falling out with the club hierarchy. He is managing Olympiakos, who lead the Greek league and sit second in their Champions League group, helped by a 3-2 win at Arsenal.
Julien Nagelsmann, 28 Hoffenheim
While not strictly manager yet, the club have announced Nagelsmann will take over at the end of the season. He is yet to pass his coaching exams but has some experience, having been an assistant there during the 2012-13 campaign as well as leading the junior side to the 2014 German title. The club are struggling and are one off the bottom, but if they do avoid relegation he will become the youngest Bundesliga manager ever.
