Eddie Howe’s coaching credentials in the Premier League have been given a ringing endorsement by his former goalkeeper David James, who believes Bournemouth can finish in the top half of their table.
James made 19 League One appearances for Bournemouth in the 2012-13 season and saw enough of Howe, who was then in the early stages of his second spell in charge at Dean Court, to be convinced the Cherries will not be relegation fodder in their first ever season in the Premier League.
Having broken their record transfer fee to sign the 22-year-old defender Tyrone Mings from Ipswich for £8m, Bournemouth have also spent around £7m on the Ivory Coast forward Max Gradel but by and large, Howe has adopted a risk-averse transfer policy, adding the former Manchester United youth player Joshua King for £1m as well as the out-of-contract trio Sylvain Distin, Artur Boric and Adam Federici.
It means Bournemouth will largely put their trust in the players who secured promotion from the Championship, such as the striker Callum Wilson, who scored 23 goals, and the midfielder Matt Richie, as well as the stalwarts Marc Pugh and Harry Arter, two of James’s former team-mates in League One, but the former England goalkeeper believes Howe’s training methods will negate any lack of Premier League experience.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished in the top half because Eddie is such a good manager,” said James. “He went to Burnley and they didn’t do as well league wise as I thought they would. Then he came back to Bournemouth and I was there and I saw him operating and I was like: ‘Wow, he is as good as I thought he was.’
“Everything was organised, his manner around the players was really great and he had a vision. He was pedantic about everything and one of the things that resonate around football now is how poor some of the coaching sessions were and still are.
“You have two hours a day to train, to prepare for the week and improve as a player. Eddie uses every minute to make his players better, hence the there are seven or eight players who were in League One who are now in the Premier League. There are not many like that, so he is special. He is very, very different in a good way. I think he is class.”
James also expects Bournemouth’s cautious attitude in the transfer market to pay dividends, adding: “I spoke to Eddie when he got promotion and he said he had been offered players left, right and centre and he said he didn’t want to bring in players just because people said they were good, they had to fit in the changing room.
He would rather have a less capable player who keeps the changing room together. Through experience being in a relegation fight, it just needs one flip and everything falls apart.”
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