HOWE: WE LOOK VULNERABLE SUDDENLY
THE opening days of non-contact training had – apart from a few teething problems – gone relatively smoothly for Bournemouth and their manager Eddie Howe.
It was good to be back on the grass, out of lockdown and kicking a ball again.
There were problems with social distancing and Howe not being able to talk to his players, but all those issues were manageable. Then the bombshell of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale’s positive coronavirus test shook the club to its core.
“Naturally, the first thing you think about is the player’s health,” Howe said.
“Then his family and loved ones and making sure he hasn’t passed on that infection.
“As soon as you get that one positive test, that changes the mindset of everybody. Suddenly everyone feels vulnerable, everyone is alerted to the fact that this is serious and real.
“Then the unknown comes into play. That shook us. We are now waiting for our next testing times to see if anyone else was in contact with the player.”
It was Howe who, amid the uncertainty of what was ahead, provided some perspective when lockdown began. Football was in disarray, with arguments blazing over pay cuts and deferrals.
Yet, on April 1, the Bournemouth manager made a gesture that helped restore faith during the most frightening of times.
Howe was the first Premier League manager or player to accept a pay cut.
He wishes news of his wage reduction had not made it into the public domain. He did not want the fuss.
His reticence speaks volumes for the 42-year-old’s character.
“I didn’t know it was going to create quite the stir it did and that felt a little bit uncomfortable for me,” Howe says. “I was just doing it because it was the right thing for me to do.
“It was knowing about how bad the situation was going to be for the football club, knowing that potentially staff members will be at risk because this is going to have a long-term effect.
“I felt the least I could do was to show
I am willing to help the club and owner.
“I didn’t know it was going to hit the news. I didn’t really want it to come out. We had a discussion internally with me, the chief executive, technical director and assistant manager.
“It wasn’t a great statement from me or the guys. We weren’t looking to impact anyone else, we just made it to protect other people working for our club.”
Many others followed suit. Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is among the managers to have accepted a pay cut, and players across the top division have agreed their own reductions. Howe had set the ball rolling.
By the time he had agreed to forgo a proportion of his income, the Cherries boss, together with wife Vicki, was deep into a routine of homeschooling his two eldest sons, Rocky and Harry.
In between maths and English lessons, Howe found time for a spot of gardening, not to mention continuing with his crusade to become a master pianist.
All of a sudden football was no longer Howe’s daily focus, though he could not help but get involved in the occasional kickabout with his boys in the back garden.
There has been a normality to Howe’s lockdown; the sort you would not necessarily associate with a Premier League manager.
Has lockdown changed him? “Yes, I think it possibly has,” he responds. “It was lovely to spend time at home; it’s not something I’ve done for a long time. It was amazing and very rewarding, albeit in sad circumstances.
“I’d love to think I can get that worklife balance where it needs to be. I’m still committed to football and football is my biggest love away from my family. But making sure you get the priorities right is hugely important.
“I think certainly there was a resetting of those priorities. Hopefully my kids will look back in a few years and say, ‘that was a good time’ because it certainly was for me.”
Now, though, Howe and his squad must refocus. Nine games to go. Nine games to secure Premier League safety.
The restrictions on training pose their own problems for Howe and his players. “There’s a lot of things that players feel uncomfortable with but they do it because there is no alternative,” says Howe, whose side were in 18th place when play was suspended.
“There were a lot of problems with the time they had to prepare themselves for training – 15 minutes is really difficult for them to feel fully prepared.
“We’ve had to prepare training sessions on Zoom. You have to adapt – and quickly. There were a lot of unknowns when we came back. It was difficult to know how it would all work.
“The most difficult part is the social distancing, where I’m not allowed to get close to the players. For me that’s part of what I do. The face-to-face contact – and that’s the bit we pride ourselves on – that bit’s missing, but that is how it has to be.”
Howe’s remit is clear: make the best of a difficult situation.
He can influence how his team perform, but it is the factors out of his control that will cause sleepless nights. Most notable, at least for Howe, is the prospect of playing behind closed doors.
“It will change the game completely,” Howe says. “Watching games in Germany… they have a strange, eerie feel about them.
“Usually you can feel the energy, you can feel what is at stake. The players know it and in some respects that really does impact their performances. Now we’ve got that tension and drama taken out. The importance of the game is still there, but one of the biggest factors – that feeling – is gone.
“An atmosphere helps to improve performance, without a shadow of a doubt. A crowd can impact a game… millions will be watching on TV, so there’s a strange pressure on the players.”