Eddie Howe with left Jason Tindal
Eddie Howe has been spending much time today talking about his future to the media at his press conference.
The inevitable talk has been about him and West Ham and although he has been a tad ambiguous in his responses a much larger feature article in The Guardian may give a better guide to his thinking.
It demonstrates that this is a very bright guy – who at lifestyle level – has other interests than football amongst which are learning piano and concentrating on classical music.
The piece also retells the story of his journey from the depths of League Two and possible extinction into the Conference to the now dizzy Premier League heights.
It’s a fascinating read at https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/nov/29/eddie-howe-bournemouth-manager-interview-piano and also gives an indication of his attitude toward The Cherries as he briefly discusses his future in the game as the League’s longest serving boss.
With his future regularly being linked to West ham and to a lesser extent Everton there’s an interesting comment on that topic which is so keenly under discussion.
In one comment on it he declares: “I’m very proud to manage the club but I know on the flip side when I talk about Mauricio (Pochettino) , how fragile the job can be and that longevity can then be used as a weakness against you.
‘I’ve been here too long, need a change,’ all of those things, so you’re sort of battling those two things all of the time.
I think there’s a lot to be said for, probably from my side, if you’re happy in the environment you are in and you are trusted by very good people above you and the conditions are right for you to do your best work, then that is worth so much.
I think that would probably be a bigger thing for me than anything else.”
Without looking at the merits of individual cases I would argue that a) we have fired too many managers since the Daves took over and b) very often done it in a classless way
Zola – Daves did not even talk to him in person
Avram Grant – fired in the tunnel at Wigan – why not let him remain in charge for the last game against Sunderland and then fire him?
BFS – Sully couldnt wait to say his contract wouldnt be renewed (before BFS could say he didnt want to renew) – I hated the hoofball but having got us back to the Premier League and kept us there for 3 seasons perhaps he deserved a more dignified parting
Slav – he had lost the plot but did Sully really have to say “We should have fired him at teh end of last season”
Moyes – while Gold was saying he thinks he deserves a chance two days after the end of the season, the story breaks that Sully is interviewing “El Zorro” – it was interesting that in a later piece Stuart Pearce revealed that while “Mr Gold” always came over after matches for a chat he himself (Pearce) never spoke to Sully
Sorry for a long winded post but if you were Eddie Howe would you want to leave Bournemouth and work for these guys?
No you wouldnt .
The football industry is a small universe.
Managers talk to each other and i cant see why
anyone would want to work for our owners.
As soon as any manager has a bad run they
Will be undermined by all the leaks against them.
“…………if you’re happy in the environment you are in and you are trusted by very good people above you and the conditions are right for you to do your best work, then that is worth so much.
I think that would be a bigger thing for me than anything else”.
50 words which pretty much explain why he wouldn’t want to work with our present owners!