IF YOU MADE A MISTAKE IN MY ERA , IT WAS BRUTAL . . . IT BROKE PLAYERS

Now Eddie Howe is at the forefront of English football’s shift in culture

EDDIE HowE watched the reemergence of the England team in the company of a threeyear-old and a six-year-old. England shirts on — them, not him — flags hanging from the window of the house.

while young Harry and Rocky Howe saw only glory and excitement, their father watched with his coach’s head on. And the Bournemouth manager believes he saw evidence of an overdue shift in the playing culture of English football.

‘Gareth Southgate was magnificent,’ said Howe this week. ‘I saw a team with a plan and a system I like that gave players freedom and a chance to dominate the ball.

‘He picked a team to play and I think the team did play. But it was also built around youth and that free, positive mindset our young players can now bring. I genuinely think we can build on that now.’

Howe, still only 40, played in an era when fear was often a young player’s companion. If you made a mistake in training you worried about the repercussions.

As a young central defender, Howe coped but others didn’t.

‘It mentally broke some of the lads I played with,’ he recalled.

Now, a different kind of bravery is required to get by as a young English player. Bravery to keep the ball, bravery to try a decisive pass. The days of the percentages are, it seems, on the way out.

‘Gareth picked a goalkeeper good with his feet, didn’t he?’ said Howe. ‘That went for the defenders also.

‘Young players are given great opportunities now, freedom to play. Training now is totally different so we are producing better technical players. The kids coming through are at a very high level and that helps them and us.’

when we spoke this week, Howe reflected on the environment he grew up in at Bournemouth in the mid-1990s.

‘Your motivation was to improve but there was an element of dayto-day living. You just didn’t want to get in trouble by making a mistake on the pitch,’ he said. ‘It was a case of just trying to survive. That was the culture at every club.

‘That’s not a criticism of my manager Mel Machin. I had respect for him but there was a feeling that if you made a mistake you were going to get it.

‘For me and some others it was healthy as it toughened us but I saw some lads fall away. They didn’t react well to certain situations.

‘It was quite a brutal place to be but that was the way of the world when I came through.’

Howe was a better player than he lets on during a 300-game career that was ended by injury at the age of 29 but has already exceeded those achievements in his decade as a coach.

Remarkably, he is the longestserving boss in the Premier League and has been in the vanguard of change. Suffice to say no young player at Bournemouth will ever be hollered at for trying a piece of skill that doesn’t work.

‘No, that’s not an ideal environment to get young players to express themselves fully,’ he said.

‘The right atmosphere does give them a platform to express themselves and that’s the way it should be. But it wasn’t just the manager in my day who was setting that tone but also the senior players. Again, that has changed.

‘ Players have become more understanding and tolerant of young players trying to make their way in the game. That’s healthy.’

HowE never had a boot deal as a player but, typically, it didn’t bother him.

‘I used to love choosing my own and there is nothing more exciting than taking them out of the box and smelling them,’ he said. ‘I did all the old-fashioned things like wearing them in the bath to soften them up. That sounds crazy now.’ If one of England’s most talkedabout managers sounds grounded then maybe the roots of that are in his background.

His late mother Anne raised five children on her own, holding down three jobs to pay the bills. Family holidays were spent under canvas on the south coast and young Eddie was often found in the newsagents when his mother’s shift started at 4am.

‘It was quite exciting knowing I was going into the shop, even if it was very early,’ Howe said. ‘But I also knew it was work and she was doing it to support the family. Her work had to involve me, because if I had to stay at home then she couldn’t work. I do think that was inspiring, showing me the efforts that you could go to in order to put food on the table. They were long days.

‘And there were no flights to exotic destinations for holidays. For us it was camping. There were a lot of cricket matches on the camping site, a lot of day trips to weymouth and Sherborne.

‘when you look at what we actually did, it probably wasn’t a lot but those holidays produced so many good memories. I loved every second. I think it did build me.

‘Yeah, it would rain and the tent blew down every year. But I wouldn’t swap it.’

Perhaps this is what Howe thinks a childhood should be, even now. Small pleasures, narrow horizons, at least at first. Not iPads and Netflix.

‘I think so,’ he nodded. ‘I am determined to make sure my kids share some of the experiences I had and don’t become used to things that their own life may not be able to sustain later on.

‘ You can see your life as a disappointment if you have too much too young.’

Howe loved football as a kid but was more talented as a cricketer and snooker player. A promising batsman, Howe eventually veered away from the sport when he

ON EARLY HOLIDAYS

We’d camp. It would rain and the tent blew down every year. But I wouldn’t swap it

ON FOOTBALL BOOTS

I’d always choose black and white, then I’d wear them in the bath to soften them up

realised the fixture list for the Dorset Under 14 season clashed with football commitments.

‘I always felt I would be a better cricketer than I am footballer,’ he revealed.

‘It was a more individual sport and I could practise and practise to make myself special. Whereas in football I never had the physical attributes needed to be the very best. But I have no regrets as to how my life has panned out.

‘Football was always a huge love of my life from very early but I just didn’t think I would be good enough. I am very fortunate to end up playing and what has happened as a manager I could never have dreamed of.’

IN a soon-to-be-released film about Manchester City, manager Pep Guardiola is seen saying to his players: ‘Some of you seem to play better when you are angry with me. So if you wanna hate me, then hate me. No problem at all.’

at the elite level of the game, management of individuals is more important than ever. Maybe it is the most important part of the Premier League manager’s job.

‘I can understand where Pep is going with that,’ said Howe. ‘I can’t say I have said the same but . . . I have felt similar.

‘There is a very fine line in the player-manager relationship and at times you wonder where it is going to go. But you have to have the courage to do and say what you think is right.

‘Ultimately you just want the players to perform and to be with you. and if they are with you through hating you then it doesn’t really matter.’ Howe thinks hard about his interaction with his players. He wears a tracksuit and not a suit on matchday and stands constantly on the touchline. These are not things done by accident.

‘I need to feel that attachment to them,’ he said. ‘I don’t think the players will look at me with belief if I am trying to be something I am not comfortable with.

‘They will know if it is or isn’t the real me. and they need to see me on the touchline and not back in my seat. They see me actively involved and think I can help them, even if I can’t. It’s important.’

Howe’s Bournemouth team — starting their fourth season in the top division — endeavour to play attractive football and he is proud of that. But in his debut season of his first spell as manager 10 years ago, Howe kept the club in the Football League on the back of some more rudimentary play.

‘I remember inviting some friends to watch us,’ he said. ‘We were in the process of changing the philosophy for the better and I was beginning to feel I was getting somewhere with the team. But they were like, ‘‘No’’. They just didn’t see it. They were seeing football that they didn’t enjoy and that really deflated me. Now hopefully it’s different.’

Bournemouth begin at home to Cardiff tomorrow. Three years in the Premier League have yielded finishes of 16th, ninth and 12th.

Howe rightly views that as a success while admitting he would love to give fans a run in the Fa Cup.

‘That’s been a disappointment for us,’ he said.

Extremely diligent, Howe begins work every day at 6am and even puts together his players’ individual video clips himself, something most top managers leave to an analyst.

‘The key things that I need to do are simply things that I need to do,’ he said, frankly. ‘My staff are great but I can’t rely on other people to do those things.

‘If someone told me there is a better way I would listen but I consider doing things myself and not taking short cuts as doing the job properly.’

Tipped as an England manager, Howe can at least put that issue to one side safe in the knowledge that Southgate is in position for the foreseeable future.

‘I first felt embarrassed by it (the link to the job) to be honest,’ he said. ‘I saw it as a great compliment but didn’t feel as though I should be in that category.’

Two years ago, Fa chairman Greg Clarke spoke of Howe’s potential but said he may not be ready for the ‘furnace’ of the top job.

But if the Premier League isn’t an environment spitting fire, then what on earth is?

‘It certainly feels like a furnace,’ laughed Howe. ‘ Maybe Bournemouth is a degree cooler than some other jobs but it is just as pressured as any other and it ramps up every year. I am sure this year it will go up again.

‘From how I live and work, I push myself to the limit so if anyone said to me I was going to feel tougher conditions, I would be surprised that would be possible if I am honest. But I am really pleased for Gareth. I know how much he cares and I thought he was absolutely outstanding in the summer, I really did.

‘I will give him a call and congratulate him at some point.’