Eddie Howe

[ikri]

2 hours ago, Wolfcastle said:

The hiring process for Bruce without joking would have been basically like Blackadder the third recruiting an MP requiring "someone over whom we have complete control. A man with no mind, with no ideas of his own. One might almost say a man with no brain."  Charnley presents Bruce to Ashley.

 

There was no real hiring process with Bruce.

 

Barnes & Penfold had contacted 10 potential managers about the job, all of whom had rejected the opportunity to work under Ashley's controls.  They then did what they understood how to do the best - nothing.  Luckily for them, for the 2nd manager hunt in a row, a manager contacted them about the vacancy.

 

We got very lucky the first time around when Rafa offered his services.  Not so lucky the second time when the guy asking for the job was Bruce.  No one sought him out for the job, he was simply the only one who was interested in working under Ashley.

 

He's basically Chief Wiggum.

[Guest HTT II]

3 minutes ago, ikri said:

 

There was no real hiring process with Bruce.

 

Barnes & Penfold had contacted 10 potential managers about the job, all of whom had rejected the opportunity to work under Ashley's controls.  They then did what they understood how to do the best - nothing.  Luckily for them, for the 2nd manager hunt in a row, a manager contacted them about the vacancy.

 

We got very lucky the first time around when Rafa offered his services.  Not so lucky the second time when the guy asking for the job was Bruce.  No one sought him out for the job, he was simply the only one who was interested in working under Ashley.

 

He's basically Chief Wiggum.

From what I’ve heard it was his son who knows people at the cub who said his dad would be interested and it snowballed from there…

[McCormick]

4 hours ago, Conjo said:

Cringed a bit reading about the inspirational quotes posted around the area which I get massive Karen home decoration vibes from  Other than that though, what a job Howe has done. He's definitely in the mix for manager of the season imo.

 

I did like the "Never be too big to do the small things" quote though, but would prefer that to be an ethos of culture instilled into the club/squad rather than being displayed as tacky kitchen decor.

   Pretty sure that kinda stuff only works when your employees are getting paid more than the boss.

[McCormick]

Great article btw, so refreshing but depressing at the same time. 

[number37]

5 hours ago, KaKa said:

 

 

Everything with Bruce was centred around getting more calories in. The man has no shame.

 

 

[The Butcher]

Would absolutely love it if we won us our first trophy in yonks with him in charge.

 

We simply have to target the cups in the coming years.

[HaydnNUFC]

League Cup, EL and ECL (god forbid) are our best chances imo. Doable.

[Mike]

Total MrBurns.gif over this chocolate bullshit.

[Abacus]

 It does seem genuinely more ridiculous every time I think of it

[Mike]

Imagine going to your normal job and the manager was like "You're late. Bring iz some cadbury's tomorrow!"

 

[woody]

1 minute ago, Mike said:

Imagine going to your normal job and the manager was like "You're late. Bring iz some cadbury's tomorrow!"

 

"Ah you fucked up today, I see. Bring iz a bribe as payment, my son."

[Mike]

There is no way he and the Steve's didn't house all of that.

 

"Let's play!"

 

And then off to the chocolates. Fucking shambles.

[kingxlnc]

I’ve never understood why ex top players are so well revered and well recieved as PL football managers. A familiar name is ok but what do they actually have about them in terms of coaching? 
In business or in any other field, even in football, top players get that way through intense coaching and development over years, even decades. Many kids start in the academy at 7 and don’t peak until 27, daily training to get there.

 

It’s not hard to see why Howe is excelling, he is the same age as Gerrard and Lampard but has 12-13 years experience in coaching, management, philosophy etc. even if it’s at a lower level, you still need to motivate a group of players to play out of their skin for you. When you have to do it with no money you have no choice but to find the best of the best ways to do it through sheer ingenuity and hard work, as you cannot buy your way out of problems.

 

whereas for top players, when the going gets tough they don’t know how to adapt, it’s new territory. They haven’t experienced real difficulty. Thinking back, all the best players of their era had a lot of limitations as coaches. Which top player really matched their playing success as a manager? Gullit, Souness, Dalglish, Keane, Maradona, Barnes, Pearce, Bryan Robson, Rijkaard, Henry, even our very own Shearer and dare I say even Keegan to an extent. 
 

Guardiola was a good player but was never a top player of the previous lists ilk. And even so, has cherrypicked all his jobs. Zidane you could make a case for of course but I would argue we haven’t even seen enough of him to determine his skills as a top class coach. Conte was like Guardiola, a good not great player. 
 

the point here is that Howe has done his 10,000 hours away from the limelight and therefore is fully poised and ready to be entering his peak as a manager with us. And it’s very exciting! Wenger was another one who was a student of the game, had done a long stint elsewhere before entering his dynasty period with Arsenal. 
 

All of this also shows how silly Everton were to go for a big name over the proven meticulous Benitez, who I guarantee would have got them out of trouble this season. 

[Lazarus]

1 hour ago, kingxlnc said:

I’ve never understood why ex top players are so well revered and well recieved as PL football managers. A familiar name is ok but what do they actually have about them in terms of coaching? 
In business or in any other field, even in football, top players get that way through intense coaching and development over years, even decades. Many kids start in the academy at 7 and don’t peak until 27, daily training to get there.

 

It’s not hard to see why Howe is excelling, he is the same age as Gerrard and Lampard but has 12-13 years experience in coaching, management, philosophy etc. even if it’s at a lower level, you still need to motivate a group of players to play out of their skin for you. When you have to do it with no money you have no choice but to find the best of the best ways to do it through sheer ingenuity and hard work, as you cannot buy your way out of problems.

 

whereas for top players, when the going gets tough they don’t know how to adapt, it’s new territory. They haven’t experienced real difficulty. Thinking back, all the best players of their era had a lot of limitations as coaches. Which top player really matched their playing success as a manager? Gullit, Souness, Dalglish, Keane, Maradona, Barnes, Pearce, Bryan Robson, Rijkaard, Henry, even our very own Shearer and dare I say even Keegan to an extent. 
 

Guardiola was a good player but was never a top player of the previous lists ilk. And even so, has cherrypicked all his jobs. Zidane you could make a case for of course but I would argue we haven’t even seen enough of him to determine his skills as a top class coach. Conte was like Guardiola, a good not great player. 
 

the point here is that Howe has done his 10,000 hours away from the limelight and therefore is fully poised and ready to be entering his peak as a manager with us. And it’s very exciting! Wenger was another one who was a student of the game, had done a long stint elsewhere before entering his dynasty period with Arsenal. 
 

All of this also shows how silly Everton were to go for a big name over the proven meticulous Benitez, who I guarantee would have got them out of trouble this season. 

 

Guardiola was an exceptional player.

 

Xavi, Iniesta, Pirlo and Fabregas all cite him as the best deep lying playmaker.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

Guardiola was fucking mint. Him and Luis Enrique are definitely under rated historically. Were my favourite players in the 90s.

 

That side with Guardiola, Enrique, Figo and Ronaldo

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Super Duper Branko Strupar

[Coffee_Johnny]

2 hours ago, kingxlnc said:

I’ve never understood why ex top players are so well revered and well recieved as PL football managers. A familiar name is ok but what do they actually have about them in terms of coaching? 
In business or in any other field, even in football, top players get that way through intense coaching and development over years, even decades. Many kids start in the academy at 7 and don’t peak until 27, daily training to get there.

 

It’s not hard to see why Howe is excelling, he is the same age as Gerrard and Lampard but has 12-13 years experience in coaching, management, philosophy etc. even if it’s at a lower level, you still need to motivate a group of players to play out of their skin for you. When you have to do it with no money you have no choice but to find the best of the best ways to do it through sheer ingenuity and hard work, as you cannot buy your way out of problems.

 

whereas for top players, when the going gets tough they don’t know how to adapt, it’s new territory. They haven’t experienced real difficulty. Thinking back, all the best players of their era had a lot of limitations as coaches. Which top player really matched their playing success as a manager? Gullit, Souness, Dalglish, Keane, Maradona, Barnes, Pearce, Bryan Robson, Rijkaard, Henry, even our very own Shearer and dare I say even Keegan to an extent. 
 

Guardiola was a good player but was never a top player of the previous lists ilk. And even so, has cherrypicked all his jobs. Zidane you could make a case for of course but I would argue we haven’t even seen enough of him to determine his skills as a top class coach. Conte was like Guardiola, a good not great player. 
 

the point here is that Howe has done his 10,000 hours away from the limelight and therefore is fully poised and ready to be entering his peak as a manager with us. And it’s very exciting! Wenger was another one who was a student of the game, had done a long stint elsewhere before entering his dynasty period with Arsenal. 
 

All of this also shows how silly Everton were to go for a big name over the proven meticulous Benitez, who I guarantee would have got them out of trouble this season. 

The point in there is  that being a great player doesn’t equip you to be a great manager. You’d need to be mad/oblivious to disagree with that.  
 

However, Guardiola was a great player and Keegan was a great manager.  They both serve as rare examples of excelling at both.  I would actually chuck Bobby Robson into that rare group also. Two examples, from a multitude of possibilities who illustrate the norm, are Bobby Charlton and Jurgen Klopp (odd pairing but 🤷‍♂️) who each tried both roles, but were only ‘great’ at one. 

[kingxlnc]

2 hours ago, Lazarus said:

 

Guardiola was an exceptional player.

 

Xavi, Iniesta, Pirlo and Fabregas all cite him as the best deep lying playmaker.

Fair enough, to be fair I remember when we were linked to him under SBR being over the moon excited but I meant historically in terms of stature, perhaps he didn’t have the profile or reputation of the others. As others have said it might be down to being criminally underrated. I thought he was more like a Dechamps or Dunga reputationally who was a top player for his country and even captain but perhaps not the highest tier on the world stage for his generation, which many of the others were. 

[kingxlnc]

1 hour ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

The point in there is  that being a great player doesn’t equip you to be a great manager. You’d need to be mad/oblivious to disagree with that.  
 

However, Guardiola was a great player and Keegan was a great manager.  They both serve as rare examples of excelling at both.  I would actually chuck Bobby Robson into that rare group also. Two examples, from a multitude of possibilities who illustrate the norm, are Bobby Charlton and Jurgen Klopp (odd pairing but 🤷‍♂️) who each tried both roles, but were only ‘great’ at one. 

No one is a bigger Keegan fan than me but what I meant was their management career was on a par or better than their immense playing talent. Keegan was a great manager but for a short period and never won anything which placed him below top top tier unlike his playing career. Tbh the one I thought people would take exception to was Dalglish as he did actually win the PL with Blackburn and Div 1 with Liverpool as a manager but tanked here and Celtic… you can see I’ve never quite forgiven him for his terrible time here haha. 
 

SBR is a good shout but his management career perhaps was more impressive than his playing career, he was a decent player but only got 20 caps or so for England. Hoddle did show potential of matching his playing career in his early management days but then fell by the wayside with the fallout with the England comments and never quite recovered. 
 

Perhaps the other standout exception who were great at both (other than Guardiola who I’m happy to be corrected about) is Johan Cruyff. 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by kingxlnc

[Groundhog63]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61247954

 

Sweet

[STM]

To be a good manager, it seems like you need 2 important things; A tireless work ethic/ devotion to the cause and a willingness to LEARN.

 

The day you think you have "cracked" management is the day things go pear shaped. It's clear to me that Lampard and to a lesser extent Gerrard have fallen into the Steve Bruce trap of assuming that they know everything about football, based on their experiences on the pitch.

 

Nutrition? Pfft.

Psychology? Pfft

Sports Science? Pfft

Data Analysts? Pfft.

 

[STM]

Also, it was noticeable on the overlap that when Neville asked Gerrard what his "idea" was, I.e his playing philosophy, style etc, Gerrard didn't really have an answer.

 

If you can't explain your "idea", what chance have the players got?

 

Imagine asking Eddie what his "idea" was? You would be there for hours.

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

20 caps for England back then is not to be sniffed at. 

[Conjo]

5 hours ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

The point in there is  that being a great player doesn’t equip you to be a great manager. You’d need to be mad/oblivious to disagree with that.  
 

However, Guardiola was a great player and Keegan was a great manager.  They both serve as rare examples of excelling at both.  I would actually chuck Bobby Robson into that rare group also. Two examples, from a multitude of possibilities who illustrate the norm, are Bobby Charlton and Jurgen Klopp (odd pairing but 🤷‍♂️) who each tried both roles, but were only ‘great’ at one. 

 

Keegan was a great manager for us, but it's difficult to argue he was a great manager since he didn't really accomplish much outside of his first management job with us. Listening to the Howey interview that was posted on here recently I was laughing when he was answering questions about how Keegan was in training and during team talks ahead of games. My impression was that they mostly played 5/7/11 a side games during training and pre-game preparations were basically him picking a team and telling them to go out and excite the fans. Doesn't exactly scream high level coaching

[macphisto]

7 hours ago, Lazarus said:

 

Guardiola was an exceptional player.

 

Xavi, Iniesta, Pirlo and Fabregas all cite him as the best deep lying playmaker.

You can an add El Chapo to the list too. Always makes me laugh that he finished his playing career at
Dorados de Sinaloa, Culiacán, Mexico. I wonder how they could afford his salary?

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by macphisto

[Shays Given Tim Flowers]

I think great players have often had the benefit of playing in great sides which means less thought has been needed about how to nullify and defeat opponents. Likewise players who go straight into a big club as managers probably don’t have to look at maximising their resources in the same way at players who have gone to clubs in difficult situations.