Don’t Edd for a new job yet
EDDIE HOWE has three options in front of him now.
He can jump straight back into management and hope that a bigger club than Bournemouth comes knocking, he can have a break and be ready for November or December, or he can take a sabbatical and come back fully recharged next summer.
I’d be tempted to go for the second option if I were him because he doesn’t have the star quality that Pep Guardiola had when he took a full year out. He’ll still have time to go and watch Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid training, and talk to their managers.
And Howe (below) needs to bend the ear of Premier League veterans such as Roy Hodgson, Harry Redknapp and David Moyes to see what he has done wrong.
We know Howe wants to play football the right way and credit to him for that, but he clearly needs to pick their brains about setting up a team to be able to defend... and defend properly.
I once had an England crowd singing my name because they wanted me to come on at Wembley, and the manager Terry Venables told me, ‘You’re always better when you’re not playing’.
Howe is going to find he becomes an even better manager now he’s out of the game and I can see an Aston Villa, West Ham, Crystal Palace or even Leeds coming knocking if they don’t have a good start.
IF Manchester City don’t win the Champions League this summer then it won’t be because they haven’t scored enough goals, it will be because their rearguard has made one or two mistakes.
There’s a massive question mark over City’s ability to keep clean sheets against the best sides – and whether or not defenders are in fact Pep Guardiola’s kryptonite.
I LOVED the month I had at Fulham as a player (below) but, I still hope Brentford win today’s Championship play-off final.
It’s good to have some old names back in the Premier League in Leeds and West Brom – but now and again it’s nice to have a different name up there as well.
They have played some cracking football this season, and if the Bees go up then none of us should be surprised if they’re sitting comfortably in mid-table this time next summer.