'Eddie Howe cannot afford same mistakes at Newcastle United'
- Published
Eddie Howe was the League Managers' Association manager of the year in 2015
Eddie Howe will return to management at Newcastle United ready to make up for lost time and re-establish a reputation as one of the brightest talents of his generation.
Howe's disciples painted the picture of a future England manager in the making as he guided Bournemouth from League Two into the Premier League, then kept them there for five seasons.
And yet it all ended on a low when the 43-year-old walked away from the Cherries in August 2020 after a tame relegation from the Premier League. It followed a season in which Bournemouth lost 22 out of 38 games, as long-standing defensive deficiencies went unresolved and Howe's sure touch in the transfer market deserted him.
But the way his spell ended does not detract from the work Howe had done in taking Bournemouth into the top flight playing attractive attacking football - and that is the manager the new owners of Newcastle United are banking on seeing after they were publicly rejected by first choice Unai Emery.
Howe has been in the shadows since moving out of management but has continued to visit and study other clubs ready for his return, and also turned down the chance to take over at Celtic in May when a deal looked done.
Now he has accepted the challenge of restoring credibility, unity and a measure of footballing stability to a club and fanbase fractured by the tenure of former owner Mike Ashley and the unpopular management of his predecessor Steve Bruce.
He will have things to prove because, while much of his work at Bournemouth was outstanding, he was not without flaws.
Howe prided himself on the progressive style he employed at Bournemouth but it was eventually undermined by those rearguard failures. In the season before they went down, the Cherries conceded 70 league goals in finishing 14th, the highest total conceded outside the relegated clubs with even Cardiff City, who went down, conceding fewer.
It was a warning that went unheeded and contributed to the unfulfilling end to a reign in which so much was achieved. He cannot afford to make that mistake again at Newcastle.
He will also need to show he can operate effectively away from the surroundings of Bournemouth, where Howe controlled so many aspects of the club and was in a relative comfort zone - at least compared with the goldfish bowl of Newcastle.
Howe has already had one unhappy spell away from Bournemouth, spending two years at Burnley before returning to the club in October 2012. Significantly, it was also a tough period personally following the death of his mother.
The ultimate aim will be to provide the Toon Army with the sort of football they crave and appreciate, as they demonstrated under managers like Kevin Keegan, but Howe's early days on Tyneside will require pragmatism as he takes charge of a dismal, troubled side lying 19th in the Premier League without a win and having conceded 23 goals.
Callum Wilson scored 67 goals in 187 games under Eddie Howe at Bournemouth
Howe will welcome the sight of a familiar face in striker Callum Wilson, who he brought to Bournemouth from Coventry City in 2014 and nurtured into the player then sold to Newcastle for £20m in September 2020. He will count heavily on him, while other former Bournemouth players Ryan Fraser and Matt Ritchie are also in the squad.
It will be intriguing to see how he works within the new framework at Newcastle, with a sporting director expected to come in, but one clear advantage Howe has over former Arsenal boss Emery is more experience working in the Premier League and of operating at the lower end of the table.
Emery may have won four Europa Leagues with Sevilla and Villarreal and would have been a more glamorous appointment, but that record of silverware may not be exactly what Newcastle need right now. They need shoring up before they can move forward and that is the task awaiting Howe.
It is the first major step forward for Newcastle's new Saudi Arabian-backed ownership after the delayed sacking of Bruce and botched pursuit of Emery. Howe's arrival will really give the club that fresh start in the playing context and represents a huge opportunity for both club and manager.
Fans are usually a very accurate measure of the sort of job a manager has done and even in relegation Cherries fans were unanimous in their verdict - #thankyoueddie was a Twitter trend on the day he left Bournemouth, even though they were back in the Championship. He was, and remains, an iconic figure on the south coast.
Newcastle will now hope he can do the same for a club whose fans have suffered so long.
And contrary to popular perception, their fans have not been demanding Premier League or Champions League glory, simply a club and a team that tries to punch its weight. Howe will now be given the financial backing to allow the Magpies to at least land a few blows.
Yes, there is pressure and expectation, both for Howe and for Newcastle's owners, but when the new manager walks through the door of St James' Park for the first time he is guaranteed a rapturous reception - not least because he is not Bruce - and it will feel a little more like the new dawn those fans have waited for has really begun.
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