Ahead of his return to former club Bournemouth, we chart the Newcastle manager’s remarkable rise in coaching
Eddie Howe took charge of his 600th game as manager on Saturday, with his transformed Newcastle side sitting in the Champions League qualifying spots and eagerly looking forward to their first cup final in 24 years.
Competing at the very top of English football, at a club the size of Newcastle, and with the backing of mega-rich owners, is all a far cry from his first managerial role at Bournemouth.
Fifteen years ago, the cash-strapped club’s very existence depended on the outcome of their League Two relegation battle.
Ahead of his return to Bournemouth with Newcastle on Saturday Night Football, we take a closer look at Howe’s remarkable journey in coaching – and the surprising similarities between his work on Tyneside and those chaotic, early, all-or-nothing days on the South Coast.
Including:
- “He had nothing” – How Howe built Bournemouth’s survival strategy from scratch with next-to-no resources
- An attacking approach – Why fast, front-foot football became Howe’s philosophy and how he recently refined that style during a year out from the game spent visiting Diego Simeone and Jurgen Klopp
- Transfer tactics – The key attributes Howe has continued to look for in new signings from day one to now, regardless of budget
- What’s next – Howe is one of England’s top coaches but his country’s international job won’t interest him for at least a decade. We explain why…
“Eddie Howe has been fantastic, arguably Manager of the Season so far. If Newcastle win a cup and get in the top four he’ll be lifting that trophy as well.”Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher
Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher analyses Newcastle’s impressive campaign to date under Eddie Howe, describing it as the ‘surprise of the season’.
A bad knee and a club on the brink – how it began
Howe is currently coaching at one of the wealthiest clubs in the world. It’s a sharp contrast to the shoestring budget he was operating on at Bournemouth when he took the reins at the very end of 2008.
With the club facing up to relegation to non-league, their very existence was on the line.
They were 23rd in League Two, seven points from safety after a 17-point deduction for financial issues.
It would have been a daunting task for any manager but especially so for a recently-retired player, aged just 31, with hardly any coaching experience under his belt and little in the way of support staff.
However, the approach Howe took will ring bells with Newcastle supporters. From day one, the hallmarks of the coach he would become were clear to see.
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Sky Sports News’ Mark McAdam had an up-close view as Howe dived in at the deep end. Working for Bournemouth at the time, McAdam found himself drafted in as a makeshift helper as the club scrambled for survival.
“Eddie was desperate to hang up his boots and focus on coaching. He was really struggling with his knee,” said McAdam about the final days of Howe’s 300-game career on the pitch, which was largely played in the third and fourth tiers of English football.
A coaching role with manager Kevin Bond materialised but Howe was soon thrust into the hotseat.
“Eddie walked into that coaching office for Kevin Bond and he was so diligent, so focused and within minutes he’d transformed it. He made it more professional, he showed how much he cared about what they were doing: set plays, scouting, coaching sessions…
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“Bond got sacked, Jimmy Quinn came into the club as the new manager and he didn’t last very long, and the club at that stage was in a perilous financial situation. They were second bottom in League Two and Eddie was told, ‘If you don’t keep this club in the Football League, we won’t go down to the National League, we will go bust. There’s no way this club can survive relegation. You have to keep us in the league’.”
With all hands on deck, Howe hurriedly tried to put together Bournemouth’s escape plan.
“I went round to his house because he had no backroom team,” remembers McAdam. “He didn’t have coaching staff, recruitment staff, anything at all. There were flip charts all over the place, lists of players, scouting reports… and that was New Year’s Day.
“They ended up going on this fantastic run and survived with a game or two to spare.
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“But he walked into an environment where he had nothing. There was nothing in place at all that he could say, ‘this is the foundation’.
“He had to build it himself, create an identity, create an atmosphere in the dressing room, sign players with the right characteristics… He’d pay the masseuses out of his money because the club couldn’t afford to have a masseuse for the day.
“It’s a very different set up at Newcastle but maybe a similar philosophy in his mind – ‘I have to galvanise this group, get everyone together, get everyone believing, get the fans on board and show in the very early stages that we can achieve something’.”
“Exciting, expansive football” – An attacking philosophy
Howe was a defender during his playing days but it was the type of football he’d struggled against which shaped the style he’d take on as a manager.
“Up against pace, he thought it was a nightmare,” McAdam recalls. “I always remember him saying, ‘If I pack the team with pace it’ll get me out of a problem, we’ll get up the pitch, we’ll score goals, we’ll hurt teams. It was part of his philosophy from the early days.
“He wanted players who were good technically, who would give him everything on the pitch, run as much as they could – but if they had pace as well that was key.
“He wanted his full-backs to get forward, wanted his wingers on the front foot and to get at the full-back and to take the team up the pitch. He wanted a number nine that could stretch defences so he could put the ball in behind.”
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During that blast to safety in his first months in management, Bournemouth scored four times in three different games, hitting three or more goals in a quarter of their final 20 games.
In one of his finest campaigns with the club, when they won the Championship in 2014/15, Bournemouth scored 98 times, the fifth highest total ever posted in that division.
“From the very early days at Bournemouth to Newcastle now, he wants to play exciting, attacking, expansive football,” says McAdam. “Maybe he’ll say the final season at Bournemouth they went a little bit more defensive than he may have liked, and he may say now he regrets that and should have stuck with the philosophy. But that approach was something that was apparent from the very beginning.”
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Callum Wilson has been a key striker for Howe at Bournemouth and Newcastle
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Allan Saint-Maximin’s pace is a key asset for Newcastle
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Howe has praised the “quick, dynamic” play of new Newcastle signing Anthony Gordon
The new Diego Simeone?! How Howe became a defensive master at Newcastle
There was laughter around the Newcastle United press room when Howe was asked last week if he had become the Premier League’s Diego Simeone. The contrast between Howe and the Atletico Madrid boss is amusingly stark.
But Newcastle’s remarkable defensive record this season, coupled with Sky Sports analysis which showed them to be among the worst offenders for time wasting, has demonstrated a significant development in Howe’s coaching.
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His front foot football at Bournemouth had lifted them through the leagues and earned them five seasons in the Premier League. But they were regularly among the top three for goals conceded during that top-flight period, letting in an average of 66 goals per season.
This campaign, Newcastle have the best defensive numbers in the division, with 12 clean sheets putting goalkeeper Nick Pope on course for the Golden Glove award. The equaliser they conceded to West Ham on Saturday was the first time he’d been beaten in the league since the start of November.
Sky Sports News’ North East reporter Keith Downie has witnessed the shift first hand and says a rebuilt defence has been key to Newcastle’s success so far this term, with Howe’s hard work after departing Bournemouth – including a visit to Simeone – a contributing factor, too.
“It’s really interesting to see the evolution of his attacking philosophy and now see what he learnt from that year off – when he watched Simeone, spent some time at Liverpool with Jurgen Klopp and visited all these clubs,” said Downie.
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“It feels like that year and a half out of the game has allowed him to evolve and he’s added different strings to his bow. To me he now looks like the complete manager.
“Newcastle have by far and away the best defensive record in the Premier League – and this is a team which latterly, particularly under Steve Bruce, was conceding goals for fun. They couldn’t keep the back door shut at all.
“He’s put together a new defence and worked them over the summer and you can see as each game passes they’re getting a better understanding between them.
“We still see that attacking play at Newcastle but now they’re scoring and keeping the back door closed.”
Improving the squad: Recruitment and rejuvenation
That rebuilt defence includes Pope, Kieran Trippier, Sven Botman and Dan Burn, who were all bought since Howe took charge of Newcastle in November 2021.
They have proven to be shrewd purchases – but they also fit the template of signing Howe has favoured since the very start of his coaching career.
When Alexander Isak was unveiled as Newcastle’s new £63m striker in August, Howe was asked if this was his best signing in management. In typical fashion, Howe suggested that, no, actually that was Steve Fletcher. The 36-year-old Bournemouth legend he brought back from non-league midway through that crucial 2008/09 season to help rescue the club.
“Eddie knew he needed something a bit different – a personality, a character to get the fans on board,” remembers McAdam. “Fletcher was well past it. But Eddie made Fletcher a better player well into his 30s and Fletcher brought something to that team that survived in League Two.
“You look back now, it wasn’t some young lad from a Premier League side. It was an old guy who, in theory, could have taken Eddie’s job if things hadn’t gone well. But Eddie didn’t care about that noise, he just knew Fletcher was the right man for Bournemouth at that time.
“That’s something that’s been seen in the signings Newcastle have made over the last couple of windows. They haven’t gone for the big name, big wage or sexy club. They’ve just gone for the right fit, the right characteristics, the right personality, the right attitude and that’s a huge reason why they’ve been so successful – and you could see that back at Bournemouth in 2008/09.”
Of course no manager gets every signing right – but even during his underwhelming stint at Burnley, Howe made some important interventions in the transfer market.
“Everyone says it was a poor spell at Burnley – it wasn’t,” says McAdam of Howe’s season and a half at Turf Moor.
“He went in there with a remit to bring the wage bill down, which he did. They built a new training facility. And while he was manager, he signed someone from Man City who was a kid called Kieran Trippier, who ended up being massively successful. He signed Charlie Austin, who was huge for Burnley. He signed Danny Ings, who was huge for Burnley. He signed Ben Mee, who was massively important for Burnley…
“I know results weren’t brilliant but the squad Sean Dyche inherited was quite good.”
As well as bringing in the new, Howe has also demonstrated his ability to get the most out of players already in place at Newcastle .
“Miguel Almiron and Joelinton, their confidence was on the floor when he arrived,” says Downie, referring to two players who have established themselves as fan favourites at St James’ Park with their performances under Howe.
“Sean Longstaff looked like he was on the way out of the club but last week scored two goals to take his boyhood club to their first cup final in 24 years.
“He says the most important thing for him and that he gets most gratification from is improving the players at his disposal. Longstaff, Joelinton, Almiron – he’s improved them through the roof. They’ve recruited well but what he’s done with the guys there is the most enjoyable thing.
“Howe has also seen something in Longstaff and Burn, who he bought from Brighton, in that they’re local lads, they know the club, the fanbase, the fabric of the city. He says it’s so crucial to have a spattering of those in your squad. He’s got Paul Dummett, too, who hasn’t been used this season because of injuries but who he feels is an imperative part of the set up there.
“The Fletcher signing feels very similar to what he’s doing with the Geordie lads at Newcastle now.”
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From Burnley to Newcastle, Kieran Trippier has been a trusted figure for Howe
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Howe describes Steve Fletcher as his best signing – the Bournemouth hero helped keep the club in the league at the start of Howe’s managerial career
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Local lad Dan Burn brought knowledge of the club to Newcastle when Howe signed him
“He grew that football team so quickly that the rest of the club was left behind” – What’s next for Howe?
The hype around Howe could go off the charts if he were to deliver a long-awaited trophy and top-four finish for Newcastle this season.
Inevitably there will be talk about the England job, too. But Downie says Howe’s ambitions lie firmly in club football right now.
The key for Newcastle will be to bring the club’s operations up to speed with the rate he is developing the team.
“We’ve asked him that question about the England job a couple of times in press conferences this season, before and after the World Cup, and he honestly doesn’t see that as his short-term ambition,” said Downie.
“Any manager would love to manage their country and Eddie Howe is no different but that’s minimum a decade away, maybe more. He’s got a lot he wants to do yet in club football and at Newcastle.
“If Newcastle win the Carabao Cup he’s not going to stop there. He’s going to want to move to the next thing and that’s exactly what the Newcastle fans want to hear right now.
“If Newcastle do qualify for the Champions League and exceed the expectations of the owners – who weren’t expecting to be this good this season – there’s going to have to be a huge change in the summer because the squad they’ve got at the moment is fairly threadbare. It’s not ready to compete in Europe, no way.”
“It’s similar to what he did at Bournemouth,” adds McAdam. “He grew that football team so quickly that the rest of the club was left behind. He took that team to a place that Bournemouth weren’t ready for it to go – the training ground, the infrastructure, the facilities… and it feels like he’s done the same at Newcastle.
“He’s got to wait for the rest of the club to catch up. Everything needs to get to the level he’s taken them to.”
Certainly it seems Howe – the owners’ second choice – will be playing out the next chapters of his coaching career at Newcastle for the foreseeable future.
“When Unai Emery turned the job down and he was Newcastle’s first choice, I thought ‘we’re off to a bad start’,” said Downie. “Eddie has gone on record and said ‘I know I was second choice’. But it was the best thing that could happen.
“Right now he’s the perfect fit for Newcastle United. A lot of people would have looked at it and thought, ‘they’re going to spend vast sums of money and he’ll be a steady set of hands to start it off’.
“I honestly don’t think the people involved at Newcastle and the supporters see that being the case – they see Eddie Howe long term.
“He’s got a lot of credit in the bank here and I think it would take a lot for things to change for him.”
Watch Bournemouth vs Newcastle live on Sky Sports Premier League from 5pm on Saturday; kick-off 5.30pm.