This Saturday is different.

fritter

fritter

UTC Legend
Saturday mornings have always been special when there’s a home game. I have never tired of it. The sense of anticipation is always there. Sometimes greater than others. Other days are good, but Saturdays are special. This Saturday is different. I’m looking forward to the game and the occasion.

Back along I would have written something for OOC or NT8502. These days I write less often. The message board is now part of our lives and I read it every day. I love it and appreciate all that DJ does. A balance of the serious and measured and the short and flighty. I loved reading the fanzines back along, the articles that people took time over. Thought out and carefully selected words. Intentional writing.

There are those that hold the view that today is all about AFC Bournemouth and that Eddie is in the past. That to focus on Eddie is to be disloyal to the team and to the current manager, that it will somehow detract. For me today is a chance to show appreciation to a man who changed everything. Who made the phrase ‘together anything is possible’ a truism rather than an aspiration.

We all know how that final season ended. Covid. Villa ghost goal. That lonely, heartbreaking image of Eddie on the pitch at Goodison Park. No crowds, we could only watch from a distance on a screen. Lonely and in isolation ourselves. Desperate to be there and to shout and sing and roar them to victory. What an awful way for a season to play out. Whatever the true circumstances of his leaving were, we were all united in seeing that he was worn out.

Yesterday I watched Eddie’s press conference. How I’ve missed that. The courtesy, humour, clarity and humanity. And I think that’s it, the person and leader as well as the manager (not forgetting 270 appearances as a player).

I suspect everyone has a story of meeting Eddie. In my experience he always paid attention, he listened. I have photos of my children with a very young Eddie back in junior cherry days. I have friends who taught Eddie at school. I know he would sometimes phone people up on their birthdays. He called my Uncle on one of his significant birthdays to wish him a Happy Birthday, He said how valuable it was to have fans who were so loyal, how important that was. I know that he visited schools and other places while manager with no publicity or press.

I bumped into him not long after he’d become manager, early February 2009. The team trained at Hamworthy Club and I was attending a work event. I was walking outside and saw Eddie coming towards me, I said hi and we chatted. He asked how I thought it was going. I told him that I thought it was going ok. He didn’t seem convinced and said that we still aren’t winning games. I said that the players are different, they are committed and we’re playing better, more of a team, he thanked me and moved on. I was left a little dazed, what manager would ask what a fan thought of the performances and then challenge a positive comment? I just checked the results that year, we lost the first 2 games, beat Wycombe and then drew 2. All before February.

I remember him being at the service for Mick Cunningham at DC. He and JT were there, unobtrusive. Just people paying respects.

When he started at Newcastle there was that time when he was leaving the training ground in the dark. They drove past waiting fans and then reversed and he got out to speak with them, it gave Newcastle fans an early indication of what was in store for them.

So today I will show my appreciation to a man who gave us all a lesson in humanity, in football, in determination, in making the impossible possible and, most of all, what leadership looks like. I don’t much care what other people choose to do but I will be showing my appreciation to a man who really did change everything. I suspect many of us will have something in our eyes.

From kick off to final whistle it is about the team.
About a performance.
About points.
Either side of that, for me, it’s about the occasion.
About Eddie.
One of our own.
 
fritter said:
Saturday mornings have always been special when there’s a home game. I have never tired of it. The sense of anticipation is always there. Sometimes greater than others. Other days are good, but Saturdays are special. This Saturday is different. I’m looking forward to the game and the occasion.

Back along I would have written something for OOC or NT8502. These days I write less often. The message board is now part of our lives and I read it every day. I love it and appreciate all that DJ does. A balance of the serious and measured and the short and flighty. I loved reading the fanzines back along, the articles that people took time over. Thought out and carefully selected words. Intentional writing.

There are those that hold the view that today is all about AFC Bournemouth and that Eddie is in the past. That to focus on Eddie is to be disloyal to the team and to the current manager, that it will somehow detract. For me today is a chance to show appreciation to a man who changed everything. Who made the phrase ‘together anything is possible’ a truism rather than an aspiration.

We all know how that final season ended. Covid. Villa ghost goal. That lonely, heartbreaking image of Eddie on the pitch at Goodison Park. No crowds, we could only watch from a distance on a screen. Lonely and in isolation ourselves. Desperate to be there and to shout and sing and roar them to victory. What an awful way for a season to play out. Whatever the true circumstances of his leaving were, we were all united in seeing that he was worn out.

Yesterday I watched Eddie’s press conference. How I’ve missed that. The courtesy, humour, clarity and humanity. And I think that’s it, the person and leader as well as the manager (not forgetting 270 appearances as a player).

I suspect everyone has a story of meeting Eddie. In my experience he always paid attention, he listened. I have photos of my children with a very young Eddie back in junior cherry days. I have friends who taught Eddie at school. I know he would sometimes phone people up on their birthdays. He called my Uncle on one of his significant birthdays to wish him a Happy Birthday, He said how valuable it was to have fans who were so loyal, how important that was. I know that he visited schools and other places while manager with no publicity or press.

I bumped into him not long after he’d become manager, early February 2009. The team trained at Hamworthy Club and I was attending a work event. I was walking outside and saw Eddie coming towards me, I said hi and we chatted. He asked how I thought it was going. I told him that I thought it was going ok. He didn’t seem convinced and said that we still aren’t winning games. I said that the players are different, they are committed and we’re playing better, more of a team, he thanked me and moved on. I was left a little dazed, what manager would ask what a fan thought of the performances and then challenge a positive comment? I just checked the results that year, we lost the first 2 games, beat Wycombe and then drew 2. All before February.

I remember him being at the service for Mick Cunningham at DC. He and JT were there, unobtrusive. Just people paying respects.

When he started at Newcastle there was that time when he was leaving the training ground in the dark. They drove past waiting fans and then reversed and he got out to speak with them, it gave Newcastle fans an early indication of what was in store for them.

So today I will show my appreciation to a man who gave us all a lesson in humanity, in football, in determination, in making the impossible possible and, most of all, what leadership looks like. I don’t much care what other people choose to do but I will be showing my appreciation to a man who really did change everything. I suspect many of us will have something in our eyes.

From kick off to final whistle it is about the team.
About a performance.
About points.
Either side of that, for me, it’s about the occasion.
About Eddie.
One of our own.
Click to expand...


I know it's early and I'm not at my best, but that just made me cry. :bow:

You may be getting old, but you've still got it. :throw:
 
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Excellent post. I remember I was up mountain in France when Eddie got appointed and back then I thought we had nothing to lose. Where we are now is all down to him. I always be a red, but wherever he goes I will keep an eye out for his results. I loved listening to his press conferences and he just had red n black running through his veins. When I was 12th man for a cup match I had the pleasure of meeting the great man. For 10 minutes he gave me his full attention, I could have talked hours with him. My colleagues at work ask if he will get a good reception today? I don’t know if there will ever be a better reception for an opposition coach/player. Fan/player/legend/manager/hero!
 
It's weird as over here when I meet new people and the conversation turns to football and I say I support AFCB. Unless they're really hardcore fans when I mention AFCB and they ask what division, or say "they're in the PL, right?", I reply "yes" but have to stop the "but...".

I want to regale them with a 15 minute monologue to explain that we may be there but it isn't who we are. I may support a team in th PL, but I'm not a supporter of a PL team. How I had settled in life. AFCB were my team and I was happy and comfortable with that. Hoping, maybe, for a season or two in the Championship. Maybe a giant killing cup run. But with no real interest in the top tier, which was a foreign country we would never visit. Couldn't get the visa for. Full of a type of football we'd never see. And I didn't care. I didn't even watch Match of the Day, so divorced of interest was I from the PL.

Then a man came along and changed the horizons. Changed what it meant to be an AFCB fan. Changed the status of the club in the town, and the country.

Yes, he had some financial backing but nothing like that at other teams whose fans still desperately squeal FFP in a hollow effort to try and undermine it.

There is now a generational chasm in AFCB fans - BH and AH. Started watching from Howe onwards and you've only ever really known a club on the up or in the top two tiers. Prior to that? You're still likely scarred by some dark days. They were still fun, but just in a different way

Having the small blonde boy with the strawberry birthmark working in the stables turn out to actually be the King who leads a glorious charge to victory is the stuff of terrible writing and cliche. Yet, that's what we got.

For changing what it means to experience life as an AFCB fan I thank him. As a gift, I hope he's given the mother of all welcomes and we send him home with no points but a happy memory.
 
Yes, he transcend just being a manager at our club, spoke eloquently, with passion and sense. Did fantastic things for fans and in the community, and was the face of AFCB. Friends and family who did not follow football, who couldn't tell one manager from another, all knew Eddie, "he that nice lad, who speaks so well".
All the best Eddie, you have earned your success.
 
Brilliant op and thread. It reminded me of when he was first appointed.

What had come before was so poor and the atmosphere so toxic that Howe's appointment was a huge breath of fresh air. Relegation felt like it was nailed-on and the place was so divided with seemingly players, manager, board and fans all despising each other. Along comes Eddie, and then Fletch, and at a stroke it felt like AFCB again - everyone united for the cause... And they smashed it!

The run we went on up the leagues was the stuff of dreams. Whatever the circumstances, a run like that would make club legends of those involved. This time the man responsible was already a club legend, and not just that, he did it all with some of the best football we've ever produced. Then there's the type of man he is.

What a legend!
 
Great post, honoured to have been name checked in something so special. It captures my feelings today.

It’s crap it’s come when things feel so low around the place. Obviously the game is about AFCB, but perhaps if things didn’t feel quite so low a few sprinkled Eddie Howe songs wouldn’t feel like treason.

Today is bigger than just a football match. We were robbed of an opportunity to say goodbye to a legend. Today gives us a chance to show our appreciation, I’m not sure we’re really going to get the opportunity to do so properly, certainly not befitting of a man who gave us so much.

He deserves to be announced on the pitch, walk around the ground clapped and a handshake from everyone in the ground, surrounding area and town, the unveiling of his statue and main stand in his name… He of course instead will be the consummate professional and prepare his side to absolutely wallop us. There will be no room for sentiment from him, his work ethic and pride is what turned unrealistic fairytales into reality over 10 years for us and what is now bringing him all the success he will undoubtedly get at Newcastle.

Hopefully they will look after him and appreciate him over the long term. I’m confident to think he will be back with us eventually. Even if it’s in his retirement. Hopefully by then, we will have the chance to show him what he means to us.
 
There were many high points during the Eddie Years, and it's hard to pick out just one. But for me, probably the greatest and most emotional was the Grimsby game back in 2009. It was one of those occasions when football seems to be a metaphor for life.

A few weeks later, I wrote a memory of the day, trying hard to sound a bit like the great writer of The Damned United, David Peace.

Just managed to dig it out, seems funny reading it again after all these years, when there was so much more waiting for us just around the corner.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s maybe eight o’clock and the sick yellow sunlight is creeping through the curtains. Only eight o’clock but it’s already another broken morning, that’s a line from some old Madness song. And this morning you know what it means.

Why did you do it ? Why ? Why does the madness break me every time ? It pulls me in and then it breaks me. Always good until it breaks me again. Another broken night. You want to escape but you know you can’t. The invisible hands slowly drag you down and pull you underwater. You can’t escape the music that pulls you in, the drink that pulls you down. Why do you do it ? You don’t know. You don’t know why. You want to escape but you can’t.

The broken morning laughs at you and you should be somewhere else. Another broken place. Another broken day in a year already broken into hopeless bits. You don’t want to be there, but you know you will be. You just will.

There’ve been too many Aprils like this, too many broken years. Too many times when it’s all gone wrong. You want to escape the fatal pull but you know you can’t.

And now it’s ten o’clock and the early morning bitterness is seeping away, the sun rises higher and it’s time to go. Back home. Maybe my day won’t be so broken there. Maybe I can mend all the bits that keep going wrong. Maybe.

Why ? Why do I do it ? The morning laughs at me again. Forty-five years and I still can’t break away. I know it’s going to beat me again.

Miles of motorway. I don’t need more miles. I’ve done enough miles, I’m tired of miles, but I still have to do more. Miles of motorway across this broken country. April 2009, the money’s broken, the banks are broken, Gordon Brown is broken, everything is broken. I’m broken too. But I have to be there today, I really do.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

We’re all sick men stumbling across the park like casualties on The Somme, fear is everywhere. And fear is inside me too, gripping my stomach with an icy hand. A hopeless broken man who can’t escape the sentence of his years.

Inside the imperfect stadium, the swelling cries of drowning men, broken men like me screaming for salvation. Helpless and hopeless now, all we can do is cry for deliverance.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

And there is Eddie, serene, alone, deep in his thoughts. He shows no fear, he sees how to unbreak this day. One day his dreams will take him far,far away. Far from this broken place, the broken money, the dark, dishonest years that were his mean inheritance. Today, Eddie sees his escape. Eddie will be unbreakable today.

The moment passes, and he walks slowly, untouchably, through the lunatic haze of fear. He knows what to say, he knows how to escape this day. Today, the day when he takes the shattered pieces and creates a perfect day. All the broken bits mended and to make something good again.
 
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fritter said:
Saturday mornings have always been special when there’s a home game. I have never tired of it. The sense of anticipation is always there. Sometimes greater than others. Other days are good, but Saturdays are special. This Saturday is different. I’m looking forward to the game and the occasion.

Back along I would have written something for OOC or NT8502. These days I write less often. The message board is now part of our lives and I read it every day. I love it and appreciate all that DJ does. A balance of the serious and measured and the short and flighty. I loved reading the fanzines back along, the articles that people took time over. Thought out and carefully selected words. Intentional writing.

There are those that hold the view that today is all about AFC Bournemouth and that Eddie is in the past. That to focus on Eddie is to be disloyal to the team and to the current manager, that it will somehow detract. For me today is a chance to show appreciation to a man who changed everything. Who made the phrase ‘together anything is possible’ a truism rather than an aspiration.

We all know how that final season ended. Covid. Villa ghost goal. That lonely, heartbreaking image of Eddie on the pitch at Goodison Park. No crowds, we could only watch from a distance on a screen. Lonely and in isolation ourselves. Desperate to be there and to shout and sing and roar them to victory. What an awful way for a season to play out. Whatever the true circumstances of his leaving were, we were all united in seeing that he was worn out.

Yesterday I watched Eddie’s press conference. How I’ve missed that. The courtesy, humour, clarity and humanity. And I think that’s it, the person and leader as well as the manager (not forgetting 270 appearances as a player).

I suspect everyone has a story of meeting Eddie. In my experience he always paid attention, he listened. I have photos of my children with a very young Eddie back in junior cherry days. I have friends who taught Eddie at school. I know he would sometimes phone people up on their birthdays. He called my Uncle on one of his significant birthdays to wish him a Happy Birthday, He said how valuable it was to have fans who were so loyal, how important that was. I know that he visited schools and other places while manager with no publicity or press.

I bumped into him not long after he’d become manager, early February 2009. The team trained at Hamworthy Club and I was attending a work event. I was walking outside and saw Eddie coming towards me, I said hi and we chatted. He asked how I thought it was going. I told him that I thought it was going ok. He didn’t seem convinced and said that we still aren’t winning games. I said that the players are different, they are committed and we’re playing better, more of a team, he thanked me and moved on. I was left a little dazed, what manager would ask what a fan thought of the performances and then challenge a positive comment? I just checked the results that year, we lost the first 2 games, beat Wycombe and then drew 2. All before February.

I remember him being at the service for Mick Cunningham at DC. He and JT were there, unobtrusive. Just people paying respects.

When he started at Newcastle there was that time when he was leaving the training ground in the dark. They drove past waiting fans and then reversed and he got out to speak with them, it gave Newcastle fans an early indication of what was in store for them.

So today I will show my appreciation to a man who gave us all a lesson in humanity, in football, in determination, in making the impossible possible and, most of all, what leadership looks like. I don’t much care what other people choose to do but I will be showing my appreciation to a man who really did change everything. I suspect many of us will have something in our eyes.

From kick off to final whistle it is about the team.
About a performance.
About points.
Either side of that, for me, it’s about the occasion.
About Eddie.
One of our own.
Click to expand...
What a top top post @fritter. Brilliant, it brought back so many memories. Thank you.
 
I was in Australia (meeting up with the wonderful @paulfrank while we were there) when I got the call from a good friend back home that Eddie was caretaker. I was in a different year, at the airport on the 1st of Jan ready to start the long trip home. I remember saying that it was a mistake and that he was too young and inexperienced.

What followed was a roller-coaster of almost permanent highs in ways that would make real rollarcoasters defy the laws of physics. But as mentioned above, Eddie is more than a bloody good manager. More than a leader. Hes an incredible human being first an foremost. He deserves every single song and chant today regardless of if its before, during or after the match. It wont possibly be enough.

It will not matter where he goes, or who he manages, I will always follow, support and wish him only the best.

HOWE-ARTER-scaled.jpg
 
Druss_the_Legend said:
I was in Australia (meeting up with the wonderful @paulfrank while we were there) when I got the call from a good friend back home that Eddie was caretaker. I was in a different year, at the airport on the 1st of Jan ready to start the long trip home. I remember saying that it was a mistake and that he was too young and inexperienced.

What followed was a roller-coaster of almost permanent highs in ways that would make real rollarcoasters defy the laws of physics. But as mentioned above, Eddie is more than a bloody good manager. More than a leader. Hes an incredible human being first an foremost. He deserves every single song and chant today regardless of if its before, during or after the match. It wont possibly be enough.

It will not matter where he goes, or who he manages, I will always follow, support and wish him only the best.

View attachment 9807
Click to expand...
That photo and moment, more than any, sums up Eddie for me.
 
He was the best manager we ever had and probably will have and I will salute him before and after the game.But the Ninety minutes in between he is opposition manager and we must remember this and get behind the boys 100% and no Eddie songs.

On a side note any money you like if they win the toss they turn us around at kick off.

Superb post Fritter
 
Can’t follow the opening post, but my thoughts on today.

Today is to remember when Eddie first came back to our club as a player from Pompey through the effort of our fans.

Today is to remember Eddie when he became our manager in very tough times for our club and fans.

Today is to remember through very sad circumstances for Eddie, bringing him back South and home to join our club for a second time, after a short time at Burnley.

Today is to remember the happier times and the ride he took us on from that moment up into the top league.

Today is the first tIme we get to say thank you for all Eddie has done while being at our club.

Looking to the future, think one day Eddie will become the England manager and the Cherries fans can say, he started with us, first as a fan, then a player and finally our greatest ever manager.
 
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