NEW MAN IS NO MESSIAH
Eddie ticks boxes but is nowhere near level of Rodgers or O’Neill
EDDIE HOWE to Celtic. It’s a story which started doing the rounds in November, when a section of supporters were causing mayhem outside the stadium on a weekly basis.
Yet, here we are, coming towards the end of a painful and fractured season for the club and it looks like Howe will be the man tasked with putting the pieces back together again.
I understand the excitement. Of all the runners and riders who have been mentioned, Howe ticks a lot of boxes.
He is a young, progressive coach with a history of playing attacking football. He’s also a name that will get the fans onside and ensure a spike in seasonticket sales.
But it comes with a caveat. Howe is not the Messiah in the way Martin O’Neill was. Nor is he Brendan Rodgers, who revelled in the limelight from the moment he arrived.
O’Neill and Rodgers were forces of nature throughout their time in Glasgow. Their personality and weight of character always gave them a chance of succeeding.
Howe, by contrast, seems more reserved. He is articulate, but softly spoken. It is difficult to imagine him holding court in the dressing room in the same way O’Neill or Rodgers did.
On the day Rodgers was unveiled, 13,000 fans were there in Celtic Park to greet him. He was an instant hero.
Howe was managing a club whose home ground only holds 11,000 fans. More people turned out to see Rodgers parade a Celtic scarf above his head than can fit inside Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium.
This is not meant to sound flippant. Just an indication of the reality into which Howe is about to be thrust. It will be an almighty culture shock.
The comparisons between Howe and Rodgers are understandable, to an extent. The two have a close personal relationship. There is a mutual respect and they speak the same language shared by many modern-day coaches.
Buzzwords like ‘philosophy’, ‘culture’ and ‘high-press’ are prevalent in much of what they say. There’s also an unwavering devotion to a particular style of play.
But the comparisons are misguided. Howe’s CV isn’t even in the same league as Rodgers’ when he took the job at Parkhead.
Rodgers had come within a whisker of winning a Premier League title at Liverpool. He had managed superstars such as Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard and got them playing great football.
He had managed in the Champions League. He knew what it felt like to compete at the elite level. Howe (right) has never managed a European game in his life. Admittedly, neither had Gerrard prior to taking the Rangers job. But he knew what it felt like to be immersed in a huge club.
Gerrard carried that weight of expectation on his shoulders for almost 20 years at Liverpool. He drove the club on almost single-handedly to win a Champions League title.
The highlight of Howe’s managerial career to date has been a ninth-placed finish in the Premier League in 2017.
He deserves credit for getting a club of such modest stature into the top flight in the first place and keeping them there for five seasons.
But spare me the notion it was some sort of miracle. It wasn’t quite the fairytale some would have you believe.
Throughout their rise up the leagues, Bournemouth were lavishly funded by a Russian billionaire.
In season 2014-15, when promoted to the top flight, they were found to have breached Financial Fair Play rules and were subsequently fined £4.75million.
During five years in the Premier League under Howe, Bournemouth had a net spend of just over £135m.
That put them on a par with Chelsea during that same period. Liverpool and Spurs both had a net spend of just over £90m in those same years.
The idea that Howe worked miracles on a tight budget is a myth. He spent a fortune and often squandered it on poor players.
He forked out a combined £36m on Liverpool duo Dominic Solanke and Jordon Ibe. Both were expensive flops.
There have also been questions raised over his ability to manage big characters in a dressing room.
Speaking about their time at Bournemouth, Rangers striker Jermain Defoe said last week: ‘I didn’t really have a relationship with the manager (Howe). I was closer to (assistant) Jason Tindall. I just felt like the manager... he didn’t know how to manage me for whatever reason.’
In an interview last summer, as Bournemouth headed for relegation, former Liverpool and England defender Glen Johnson raised similar concerns.
‘For me, it seems Eddie Howe has got a certain mentality or philosophy that only works with lower-league players,’ he said. ‘Eddie had Jermain Defoe, Asmir Begovic and Sylvain Distin, three well-established Premier League players with a lot of experience. I know those three, I played with them. They are the sort of players Bournemouth need to help them stay in the league, but every one of them fell out with Eddie.’
If Howe takes the Celtic job, he must prove himself capable of working under a relentless spotlight. Success at Bournemouth was finishing 17th and avoiding relegation. The Celtic hotseat might as well be in a different stratosphere. The club is broken right now. It’s up to Howe to prove he has the healing hands to fix it.