Eddie Howe to Arsenal: Bournemouth manager is passionate, principled, articulate and addicted to the job – much like his probable predecessor
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ARSENE WENGER and Eddie Howe are two of a kind.
Passionate, principled, articulate . . . and addicted to the job.
For that reason the name of Bournemouth’s understated manager is in circulation inside the corridors of power at Arsenal.
At some stage, possibly even at the end of this season, the great man will finally step aside.
Howe is a younger, dynamic version of Arsenal’s longest-serving manager - and is now firm favourite to land the gig after having his odds of being next Gunners boss slashed.
With three promotions at Bournemouth before he has hit 40, Howe has carved out a handsome reputation in the game.
On transfer deadline day last week, he even convinced Jack Wilshere to join on a season’s loan.
With Roma and Milan also in the running, Howe somehow charmed the Arsenal midfielder to spend the next eight months at Dean Court.
Wenger, undoubtedly, approves.
There is also a nod in the direction of Bournemouth’s playing style, this easy-on-the-eye approach that won them so many friends.
Howe, 38, has an established way of playing and little Jack will slide effortlessly into their favoured 4-3-3.
Their target is to refine the system and improve on last season’s 16th-placed finish in their first year in the Premier League.
That achievement alone is more credit in the bank for Howe.
Naturally, when the time comes to find Wenger’s successor, there will be the temptation to be seduced by the latest big name on the block.
You can be sure that the fans, desperate to see Arsenal return to the top after 12 years without winning the league, will demand a heavyweight.
To hire the next Pep, the next Mourinho or the next Conte, and pray to God they are good enough to succeed the most successful manager in Arsenal’s history.
That hire-’em-and-fire-’em approach is not The Arsenal Way.
They want consistency and continuity.
Not somebody who will rip up all of Wenger’s good work over the past 20 years and start making outrageous financial demands for new players.
Howe, this ambitious, hard- working and diligent young coach, fits the bill - even if Cherries chairman Jeff Mostyn wants to see him stay.
Like 66-year-old Wenger, he does all the coaching himself after a brainstorming session with his assistants, Jason Tindall and Simon Featherstone, at Bournemouth.
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Young, refreshing and innovative, everybody in the game knows that Howe is going places.
He has struck up something of a friendship with Wenger, the type of mutual and professional respect that is so rare at the highest level of the game.
Howe is eager to learn, absorbing new ideas as he attempts to establish little Bournemouth as a Premier League team.
He kept them up last season, staying true to his principles and playing the game the way he wants to see it.
That belief, even in troubled times, was unshakeable.
For that he has Wenger’s respect.
They got some decent results on the way to staying up, with successive wins over Chelsea and Manchester United last December creating something of a stir in the sleepy seaside town.
Bournemouth has been home for Howe, a comfort blanket after returning to the club in 2012 following a complicated spell as manager of Burnley.
He has ambitions to coach at the highest level, with his attitude and commitment to the job one of his standout features.
His conduct — classy and composed at all times — is right up Arsenal’s street.
They are not the type to be drawn into slanging matches over days or weeks or, in Mourinho’s case, years — whatever the provocation.
Wenger, save for the occasional outburst, prides himself on that.
Arsenal’s manager has too much class for all that nonsense.
Howe, just like the man at the Emirates, rarely kicks off.
There are admirers elsewhere, with his name kicking around St George’s Park following England’s defeat against Iceland at Euro 2016.
Although Howe has aspirations to coach at the highest level, it was too soon in his career for international football.
Instead he wants to feel what it is like to be manager of an established top-four club and to pit his wits against Mourinho, Guardiola and all the other big-name managers on even terms.
English club management records
Eddie Howe (2008-):
Games 379
Wins 176
Draws 79
Defeats 124
Win rate 46 %
Arsene Wenger (1996-)
Games 1,123
Wins 642
Draws 262
Defeats 216
Win rate 57%
Like Wenger, he never played at the highest level of the game. Still, he is one-eyed in his approach, with his thirst for learning and his dedication to improving players — tactically, mentally and physically — another admirable quality.
It is those features, that intensity about his work, that is so appealing to Arsenal’s powerbrokers.
There will be others, such as Wenger’s assistant Steve Bould, who believe they should get a shot at one of the most prestigious jobs in world football.
By the end of the season there is a chance that one of the other big names — a Mourinho perhaps, a Carlo Ancelotti, a Luis Enrique — will also be looking for work.
Tempting as it is to appoint one of the celebrity managers on the circuit, Arsenal will explore all the options.
With Howe under consideration, they might just have found Wenger MkII.