This Saturday is different.

Edward John Frank Howe :

December 2008, after his playing career unluckily ended by a knee injury, and a period as reserve team trainer...gets a 'risky' appointment as Manager of Bournemouth and Boscombe...baby-faced and wide eyed ..taking on an impossible task.

We knew nothing of what to expect...but things extraordinaire lived in his head.

Circa 2015..." Whoa Eddie ...what's going on ? "

"Manchester Utd at Dean Court in a league game..we did them over in a Cup game once but this...? "
Well...HE knew what was going on !

And here we are now in 2023 facing up now to the most intellectual football manager of modern times....and most visionary since Ramsey, Shankly and Clough....and likely to be next England Manager.

Some Ride Ed !....and we've been on it with you...
...oh we still are ..aren't we ?
 
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.

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This photo is the peak moment of AFCB history. Beating United, everyone together. Squad of under £4million value cutting it in the PL. Obviously tragic for Harry but strength together in adversity and a display of what it's important in life above football, while simultaneously showing how important it is to have football as a part of life.

We finished higher, we had bigger victories, but the height of AFCB's history is right there at that moment.

I'm not ashamed to say I'm a Howe supporter and I'll support him wherever he is until he's won us the world cup (unless he's against AFCB, obvs!).
 
Some great posts today....the Forum on a high...on this historic day !

A Win would bring some 'fresh death' to the lower end of the table !
 
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.

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My favourite image of that 'era'. The man, the occasion, Arter emotions, his performance that day, captured perfectly
 
Brilliantly written OP @fritter

Very few clubs have one man to rally behind. Fergie or Busby… Shankley or Paisley etc. Others have pointed out Graham Taylor with Watford as the closest equivalent but I’m not sure there are many others. It makes today very special because unless he comes back as our boss one day we won’t often see Eddie in our ground. He has never set foot in it since the day he left which I also find incredible and sad. I think however odd it is for us though it will be odder for him as he owned the place in all but deeds.

Outside of football memories a personal memory. My lad was about 8 and had gone with his friends mum and other kids for a kick about in Whitecliff. When I went to pick them up I noticed him talking to someone and they were facing out to sea. I asked the mum and she said ‘I assumed you knew him they’ve been jabbering away for about a quarter of an hour’. I wasn’t concerned as there were many people about and my lad was laughing and smiling. I walked over they turned around and it was Eddie. I apologised for the interruption of his day and he said ‘not at all it’s lovely to meet a kid who knows so much about Bournemouth and I enjoyed the chat’. He said goodbye and carried on with his dog walk.

I asked my lad what he was talking about and he said I did tell him I thought we were better with Kermorgant than Pitman because we can cross the ball more!
 
Neil Dawson said:
Brilliantly written OP @fritter

Very few clubs have one man to rally behind. Fergie or Busby… Shankley or Paisley etc. Others have pointed out Graham Taylor with Watford as the closest equivalent but I’m not sure there are many others. It makes today very special because unless he comes back as our boss one day we won’t often see Eddie in our ground. He has never set foot in it since the day he left which I also find incredible and sad. I think however odd it is for us though it will be odder for him as he owned the place in all but deeds.

Outside of football memories a personal memory. My lad was about 8 and had gone with his friends mum and other kids for a kick about in Whitecliff. When I went to pick them up I noticed him talking to someone and they were facing out to sea. I asked the mum and she said ‘I assumed you knew him they’ve been jabbering away for about a quarter of an hour’. I wasn’t concerned as there were many people about and my lad was laughing and smiling. I walked over they turned around and it was Eddie. I apologised for the interruption of his day and he said ‘not at all it’s lovely to meet a kid who knows so much about Bournemouth and I enjoyed the chat’. He said goodbye and carried on with his dog walk.

I asked my lad what he was talking about and he said I did tell him I thought we were better with Kermorgant than Pitman because we can cross the ball more!
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Lovely story but it was all set for punch line of "he told me Neil Blake is useless".
 
Distinctly remember away at Burnley one year as we scurried away back to the car after a defeat, two kids and and their father approached us with the usual you're teams crap, and the father added but that lad at the back who scored for you looks like he's going places, how correct he was Eddie.
 
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.
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What a wonderful post. Thank you.
 
Great thread and thank you to everyone who had posted.
I am proud to tell people I went to the same school as Eddie Howe. I also remember the excitement of watching eurosport and seeing the name Edward Howe in the Toulon tournament. West Ham away in the League Cup and he was the best player on the park.

Let's hope that after the match today, after 3 points for us, there is time for a lap of honour.
 
Got me wondering. Who is the greatest English manager of all time? Venables? Mee? Nicjolson
zigger zaggar said:
You are getting old Paul, 'O' levels were graded A - E IIRC.
Excellent post BTW :bow:
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They were. But in my time they were 1-9 and then U for ungraded
 
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