RODGERS WAY IS AN EXAMPLE FOR HOWE
LIVERPOOL are in town , but Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe seems reluctant to embrace the extra attention coming his way because of the glamorous fourthround FA Cup tie.
There is no indication of this eloquent, softly-spoken, 36-yearold milking his club’s 15 minutes of fame, just a quiet desire to make these occasions more regular occurrences.
Howe spent two days observing Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers when he was at Swansea, including an afternoon when the pair spent ‘four or five hours’ just talking about football. The boyhood Everton fan raves about Rodgers’ generosity and describes the Liverpool manager as one of his role models: for being an ‘ innovator’ and a ‘thinker’ but primarily for the way Rodgers sets up his teams.
‘Bournemouth want to be Liverpool,’ he says. ‘That’s the pinnacle for us. How they play, their style. So for us to be up against what we see as perfect will be interesting. I want people to leave here thinking we play good football.
‘Watch Brendan’s teams and they have a very clear identity and purpose. He thinks differently about the game and that’s inspiring.’
Like 40- year- ol d Rodgers, Howe’s youth and home-grown experience set him apart. Howe was 31 when he took over at
6 years since Bournemouth were forced into administration and nearly out of the League
Bournemouth and had to send one of his players, who also happened to be a friend, to a training camp to lose weight. Yet ask Howe if he wants to manage at the highest level and the response is surprising.
‘Probably not,’ he says, without hesitating. ‘I don’t have a burning ambition. I don’t have something inside me saying, “I must get to the top”. I had it as a player, but my mentality is different now.
‘I have a long-term plan for every club I’ve managed, but my longterm plan for myself doesn’t exist. Stay in work, be successful, try to win the games immediately in front of us. What happens beyond that I have no control over.
‘ I’m not going to turn down anything good that happens in the future, of course. But first, I’m ambitious for this team. I want to get us in the Premier League. That may sound bold, but I think it’s possible.’
Howe’s words, though, are not delivered in the tone of an unambitious man who thinks his career has peaked well before his 40th birthday, but with the confidence that comes from being comfortable in his surroundings.
Bournemouth is Howe’s club. He enjoyed two spells here as a player and is now in his second stint as a manager. He looks around the plush champagne bar at Dean Court with justifiable pride, remembering the club going into administration in 2008 and nearly falling out of the League the following season.
There have been personal hurdles for Howe to overcome, too.
His mother, Annie, died suddenly in March 2012 while he was in charge of Burnley, yet the manager was expected back at work three days later. He found it hard to cope, particularly as wife Vicky, then pregnant with the couple’s first child, had stayed on the south coast of England. Their son, Harry, was born the following August, and Howe returned to manage Bournemouth in October.
‘It’s been life- changing, really, the last couple of years,’ he says, his eyes glazing over. ‘When you lose a parent, who was really your only parent growing up, it is very difficult, and it was totally unexpected. It certainly tested me on an emotional level. The demands of the job are that you have to lead the club and the team, and you are expected back a couple of days after a bereavement. I found it very difficult to handle.
‘Having a newly-born son as well... it was a tough, tough time.
‘There are people in much worse positions than me. But I was in it, and I was living it, so I found it difficult. To come back here, I found it a big relief at the time.’
Things had changed dramatically in Howe’s time away, with a new owner — Maxim Demin, a Russian petrochemicals trader — in charge. Reports of Demin’s wife storming into the dressing room at half- time during a match against MK Dons in 2012 had filtered up to Lancashire.
‘I had conversations on coming back to say that wouldn’t happen again,’ says Howe, smiling. ‘I’ve put a lock on the changing-room door.’
The owner, who took full control last September, will be watching at Dean Court today.
Real Madrid have already visited for a friendly and now comes the opportunity for his club to try to bridge the gap between the Championship and the promised land of the Premier League.