Eddie Howe

Howe was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. When very young, he moved to Verwood in Dorset, and later began his footballing career with local youth teams Phoenix Sports YFC, later to be known as Verwood Town YFC and Parley Sports before starting his professional career at Bournemouth. He made his first-team debut in December 1995 against Hull City. Howe established himself as an important player in Bournemouth's defence, and in 1998, he was selected for the England Under-21 team in the Toulon Tournament. In March 2002, Portsmouth signed Howe for £400,000, making him new manager Harry Redknapp's first signing. Shortly after signing, a knee injury on his debut against Preston North End ended his season. He returned for the opening game of the 2002–03 season against Nottingham Forest, but he injured his knee again after only nine minutes and was ruled out for the entire campaign. He did not return to full fitness until January 2004 after 18 months out. He was loaned to Swindon Town on transfer deadline day in March, although he did not feature for the club. Portsmouth loaned Howe back to Bournemouth for the first three months of the 2004–05 season. He proved to be successful on his return to his first club after two injury-ravaged seasons with Portsmouth. With the club in a very poor financial state, supporters joined to create "Eddieshare" to fund a transfer fee. Days later, £21,000 was raised to fund the required permanent transfer fee. After a further three seasons and over…

Bournemouth

In December 2006, at the age of 29, Howe was promoted to the position of player-coach by manager Kevin Bond, and handed the task of coaching Bournemouth's reserve team, though he continued to play in the first team. He retired from football in summer 2007, after he was unable to recover from a knee injury. In September 2008, Howe lost his job when Bond was dismissed as manager. Howe returned to Bournemouth as a youth coach under Jimmy Quinn and took over as caretaker manager on 31 December 2008 when Quinn was dismissed. Even though his two games in charge as caretaker manager were away defeats, he was hired as the permanent manager of the club on 19 January 2009 and brought the club out of the relegation zone despite them having begun the season with a 17-point deduction. In the start of the 2009–10 season, Howe won eight out of the nine games, a club record. In November 2009, Championship club Peterborough United approached Howe to replace Darren Ferguson as their manager but Howe rejected their approach. Despite the club's transfer embargo remaining in place for the rest of the season, Bournemouth secured promotion to League One after two years in the fourth tier of English football thanks to a 2–0 away win at Burton Albion on 24 April 2010. In early 2011, Howe was approached by several other clubs but on 11 January announced that he was staying at Bournemouth. However, on 14 January 2011, Howe became the new Burnley manager after the club agreed a…

Howe completed his coaching badges with the Irish FA in 2011, implementing a tactically flexible system with the teams that he manages. Howe's coaching style has been influenced by such football managers as Jürgen Klopp, Johan Cruyff and Diego Simeone, having spent time observing the latter's training methods after leaving Bournemouth. Many of Howe's man-management techniques have been influenced by John Wooden, former American college basketball coach. Tactically, Howe prefers a 4–3–3 in possession, switching to a 4–5–1 out of possession, with an emphasis placed on pressing the oppositions defence, resulting in a higher amount of quick-turnovers. During the 2023–24 Premier League season, Newcastle United had increased defensive injuries, forcing Howe to use 3–4–2–1 and 4–4–2, however this meant that the team produced their highest ever goal scoring campaign, netting 85 goals in 38 games.

Howe and his wife Vicki have three sons. On 5 March 2019, Howe was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Bournemouth by Bournemouth Borough Council. His childhood club was Everton. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Howe became the first Premier League manager to take a pay cut. His half brother, Steve Lovell, is a scout at Bournemouth, and his nephew, Andy Howe, is Assistant Head of First Team Recruitment at Newcastle United.