Thought for the week
Is Bournemouth the perfect breeding ground for top managers?
When you think about Harry Redknapp, Tony Pulis, Sean O'Driscoll and, now, Eddie Howe, that does not seem quite as peculiar a question as it might first appear. All, bar Howe, are former Dean Court managers and he is the latest occupant of that post. While Redknapp and Pulis are doing very nicely thank you for Tottenham and Stoke respectively, O'Driscoll is performing a quietly impressive job at Doncaster in the Championship.
Howe, meanwhile, has, against all financial odds, steered Bournemouth to the top of League Two. Still just 31 he is the youngest manager in the Football League and also has the distinction of having been Redknapp's first signing at Portsmouth. Unfortunately a subsequent injury restricted Howe, then a defender, to just two first-team appearances at Pompey and he was soon back at Bournemouth preparing for a life spent coaching rather than playing.
It is a miracle that he is managing the Cherries in the Football League at all after a highly turbulent few years for the club. Remember that, as recently as February 2008, Bournemouth were placed in administration – the administrator was Gerald Krasner, well known to Leeds fans. Despite Krasner's best efforts, the start of the 2008-09 season saw the club having 17 points deducted by the Football League for failure to follow its insolvency rules. Happily, Bournemouth survived in League Two and, earlier this summer, a new consortium took control, promising a bright new beginning.
Even so Dean Court remains a bit light on household names – although Lee Bradbury, the ex-soldier and former Manchester City striker, is still around to lead the attacking line. At 34, Bradbury is three years his manager's senior.
Watch this space – and don't forget the name of Eddie Howe.
Goal of the week
George Boyd for Peterborough United in the 3-2 home win against Reading
Boyd let the ball roll through his legs before flicking it instinctively into the bottom corner. It was an exceptional goal but one that did not surprise those Peterborough fans who believe Boyd is the Championship's answer to Wayne Rooney. Or supporters of his old club, Stevenage, who dubbed the 23-year-old left winger or striker 'the White Pele'. Much more of this and Darren Ferguson might just struggle to hold on to him – his father, Sir Alex, is said to be a bit of a Boyd fan.
Dark horses, one to watch out for
Blackpool and Ian Holloway
Holloway may be one of the game's great eccentrics but he is also a more than useful manager. Just ask Wigan, thrashed at Bloomfield Road in the Carling Cup recently. Or Newcastle United, whose sole league defeat has come at Blackpool. Holloway's men are up to seventh now and look a more than decent bet for the play-offs, if not – whisper it – something better. Holloway claims they play "total football" with players constantly inter-changing positions and are thus the Championship's answer to Holland. So far so amusing – but the fact that the "tangerine dreams" also play in orange may not be quite the sole similarity between the Dutch and Blackpool these days. Darren Ferguson is certainly unlikely to be underestimating their threat when he takes his Peterborough team to the seaside on Saturday.
Games to look forward to
Leeds v Liverpool (Carling Cup, Tuesday night)
A throwback to the days when both of these clubs were two of the principal powers in the footballing land. Liverpool still are, of course, but they should not necessarily take Simon Grayson's League One pacesetters for granted. It is a chance for Jermaine Beckford to show he can score goals in august company and is not just a flat-track bully designed to undo the game's weaker defences. Meanwhile the memories – of Mark Viduka scoring four against Liverpool and Tony Yeboah claiming a wondrous volley for Leeds – will come flooding back.
Ipswich v Newcastle (Championship, Saturday)
How the late Sir Bobby Robson, who managed both clubs, would have relished this one. On Monday afternoon both Ipswich's manager Roy Keane – still seeking his first Championship win of the season – and Newcastle's high flying caretaker Chris Hughton attended the Robson memorial service at Durham Cathedral. On Saturday they do battle for their futures – Hughton to be made permanent manager at St James' and Keane to win over the increasingly cynical hearts and minds of his new Suffolk public. The last time Keane played Newcastle was at the Stadium of Light just over a year ago. Sunderland won and all seemed hunky dory in his world – yet within weeks things were unravelling and, by December, he had walked out on the Wearsiders. Could this be a watershed of a rather more positive kind?
Much may depend on the central midfield battle between Ipswich's Sunderland-born, red and white through and through, Grant Leadbitter – remember his excuse for being caught speeding on the A1 in Gateshead recently was that he believed he was being pursued by Toon Army foot soliders rather than police officers – and Newcastle's Joey Barton. Some of the tackling promises to be almost Keane-esque in its intensity.
