The Long Read: Eddie Howe: A Very Cherries Celtic Perspective

The Celtic community can pretty much all agree that this has been a wasteful dreadful dire season, requiring most supporters to describe anything and everything Celtic with use of profanities. It is beyond bad, it’s an epically terrible season mixed with a dose of hard realism. None can be not deluded as to the scale and longevity of the rebuild required, so why then is Eddie Howe our man?

Managing Bournemouth is not the same as managing Celtic, in fact, there is no element of the Celtic job that can even come close to the intensity of pressure Eddie navigated at Bournemouth. Second from bottom of League Two with a -17 points deduction, within four months Eddie performed a miracle in avoiding relegation to the non-league. He literally saved the club from the abyss.

Flirting with abyss was Bournemouth’s favourite game. Since the 1990s, the club continually navigated a spiralling debt crisis. When taking the manager reins, the past twenty years had finally caught up with the club. What their second spell in administration, having sold the stadium years prior, a worse than dreadful credit rating, there was nothing left to sell and no margin for debt restructuring.

The simple truth was that if he did not succeed in pulling off the most unlikely miracle, the club would cease to exist. On him were the hopes of thousands of supporters, hundreds of jobs, not to mention the negative economic, cultural impact on the wider community.

These circumstances still existed the following season albeit at least starting the league on 0 points this time. Debts again saw the football league impose a crippling transfer embargo. Playing half the season with only 11 barely match fit players. However, Eddie’s coaching was clearly improving the entire squad ending in achieving an unlikely promotion.

People’s lives literally will be ruined if you don’t achieve a result puts into perspective what Eddie understands about pressure. Celtic will be a different results-based pressure rather than financial.

Patience will be required if Celtic are to return to where they should be, certainly, next season should already be considered a write-off but that doesn’t mean two years from now we won’t be an exciting talented force once again.  The difference is Eddie can build a legacy rather than being just a quick fix.

Gathering more air miles than club’s points respectfully, being based in Glasgow the last decade I have divided my time between watching Celtic and Bournemouth, clubs at polar opposites! The media frequently aim cheap shots at Eddie’s spending record which actually is exceptionally good. One of his last big signings, Dominic Solanke, is proving this season what an eye for talent Eddie has.

The truth is when you look behind the spending, Eddie has a ruthless streak similar to Sir Alex Ferguson. England international Jermain Defoe came to the club after arguably his two best seasons (yes for Sunderland!). He just didn’t fit into the team philosophy, wasn’t effective at performing the role required by Bournemouth. Over the decade, many players came and went with this problem, Eddie doesn’t care for egos, salary, transfer fees. He will coach players and make them better if they show the ability to play football his way. He is utterly ruthless, brutally determined, he wants to win football his way and given a patient year by Celtic – you’ll start witnessing football played the Celtic way (in turn Eddie’s way).

Five years ago, I made claim that Eddie’s next job (post Bournemouth) would be Celtic as it’s the perfect match. We’ve heard enough about coaching, promotions, attacking football, you know what he is about as a manager.

But Celtic supporters are unlike any other I know, from the first time I attended a Celtic game ten years ago, I was so warmly welcomed by the community that I became hooked.

In fact, Bournemouth and Celtic supporters are very alike in expectation, we can accept losing, disappointment, alongside winning. It is our perception of the behaviours, efforts of those club custodians (whether owning, playing, coaching) that shapes our reactions.

During his playing days, Eddie still performed and captained the bankrupt Bournemouth team despite not receiving wages. Indeed in 2004, through “Eddieshare” the supporters fundraised & financed his return to the club from Portsmouth. He was even there in the Winter Gardens back in 1997 to witness the club supporters save the club, literally saving his employment. When his Mother unfortunately died, he returned home to Bournemouth (from Burnley) to be with his family, in his mind that includes the community.

Unlike other players and managers, Eddie is extraordinarily humble in understanding the power and role of club supporters. Undoubtedly, he loves Bournemouth, but part of his great motivation for the club was in turn to repay a debt owed. His playing career was effectively over with an injury but supporters funded his return despite that. We invested in him out of love, we never anticipated he would lead us to the Premier League a decade later. Relegation was an inevitable consequence of being a small club, surviving five years is utterly incredible and a testament to what an outstanding coach Eddie is.

Coming to Celtic is a natural choice for Eddie. You’ll see his first big moves won’t be in the transfer market but with you individually. He will tap into and learn everything about the club’s history. Emphasize to the players that they are custodians with the opportunity to contribute, to write history. That rich understanding of how strongly supporters associate themselves with the club history are shown in his first ever major managerial decision all the way back in early 2009.

Near relegated and bottom of the league two, Eddie brought back the 37-year-old striker Steve Fletcher. A Bournemouth icon whose playing career was well and truly over. His signing sent shock waves of positive energy throughout the club, even at his elder age, it was his goals that kept the club in the league. The signing helped bring the club supporters and custodians together in a common cause. It gave the players a sense of identity, he is the walking monument to what it meant to be Bournemouth.

Eddie will be looking to the Celtic supporters for patience and trust. He understands our pain, he understands that it is not missing out on the ten in the row that hurts but the sheer total dreadful effortless collapse, that perception that no one actually cares.

If the supporters trust in Eddie, give him a year to find his feet, support him with intensity through the bad results to come, you’ll see the beginnings of a legacy like none other.

@artistarchivist