Eddie Howe could have been in Liverpool dugout if the pieces had fallen differently
Could Eddie Howe ever be Liverpool manager? Perhaps the moment has passed forever, and this job is now Arne Slot’s for the life cycle of this current team and beyond. Maybe Howe is bound to Newcastle United for the time being, as the leading English manager of his generation and one less decision that the admittedly restless Saudis have to make. So much would have to change, so much would need to align. But of all the many things that may never happen in football, you might consider this one the likeliest of all the unlikely.
The new post-Jürgen Klopp regime at Liverpool may win its first trophy against Howe’s Newcastle in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final. The Premier League title is surely not far away either. It is shaping up to be one of those pivotal summers when Liverpool should be able to sign players from a position of strength. Yet whatever way Sunday’s final goes for Liverpool, the people running the club will have Howe in mind. He remains a close friend of Michael Edwards, the controlling power at Fenway Sports Group – the FSG chief executive of football – and his closest aide, Richard Hughes. Had the pieces fallen differently, Howe, Edwards and Hughes could well have been on the same side.
It is Hughes, appointed by Edwards as Liverpool technical director in March after eight years in a similar role at Bournemouth, through whom Howe and Edwards met. It all happened at Portsmouth in the mid-2000s when Hughes was a senior player. Also in the squad was Howe, albeit by then in the grip of the serious injury that would ultimately end his career. Edwards was Portsmouth’s analyst, working for contractors Prozone, and riding the first uncertain wave of data analytics in football.
In those days the traditional hierarchy of the game would have placed the analyst somewhere around the level of the kit man. But Edwards is now the most powerful of the three, running the FSG football empire from its Cheshire offices. There was a point in the early 2000s when Hughes and Howe were poised to join Wigan Athletic, then under the management of Paul Jewell. They would have gone as a package but the move fell through. Hughes had a very solid Premier League career with Portsmouth and then went into recruitment at Bournemouth post-retirement where his old team-mate Howe was taking the club up through the divisions.
Those who know these things say that it is through Hughes that Howe got to know Edwards, and that Hughes is chief conduit of the bond. It would be no exaggeration to say that if those running Liverpool had to lose a final to anyone it would be Howe. They know as well as anyone what a remarkable route to the top he has taken.
Howe did not have a high-profile playing career to power his coaching career. He has managed in all four divisions to get to where he is today, including, at the start, Bournemouth, a club that was on life support. Little wonder that those who appreciate him the most are the colleagues who knew him when his playing career was in crisis and saw him build a coaching career from the very bottom.
He is well established now as the pre-eminent British manager, ahead even of David Moyes. There are only four British managers in the Premier League if one is to include Kieran McKenna, from County Fermanagh. Apart from Howe, all are in the bottom six places. Graham Potter is the only other English Premier League manager. Even the England manager is German. In the leanest era ever for managers from these shores, Howe has thrived. He has proved much more durable than his golden generation age-group peers. They may have 100-plus England caps, but Howe, with his single under-21s appearance, has outperformed them all.
Howe was considered by Liverpool in the summer of 2015 when Brendan Rodgers was hanging on and there was not yet any guarantee of Klopp taking over, as he finally did in October of that year. At the time Howe had not yet managed in the Premier League. But the admiration for his three promotions at Bournemouth – at last by that summer a Premier League club – was strong.
When it came to appointing Klopp’s successor last year, Howe scored highly in the analysis model created by the club’s former director of research, Ian Graham – now under the auspices of his successor Will Spearman – to assign value to coaches. Which is to say the various complicated ways the model rates how a coach presides over an improvement in a player’s performance. That includes how often a player gets injured under his training and game regime. Do players improve or decline when the player and coach part company? Can a coach play different styles or is he wedded to one?
Slot scored extremely highly and over the course of the recruitment process it became clear that the Dutchman was a much more viable target. Would Howe ever have stepped away from Newcastle? It feels unlikely. But in the manoeuvring this time last year as Chelsea and Manchester United assessed their options, and the Football Association also needed a new manager, it is strange that no one tested the strength of the connection between Howe and Newcastle.
The Newcastle takeover revolution has, by virtue of financial controls, been unable to spend in the same way that Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour once did – but even so, under the burden of serious expectation, Howe has done a fine job. Ultimately he will be judged on whether he wins trophies or not. No serious manager would want it any other way. But after a decade at the top it is easy to forget that he came from nowhere.
From taking over what looked like a lost cause at Bournemouth aged 31 and somehow rescuing them from relegation out of the Football League, to the brink of a first major domestic trophy at a club that have not won one since 1955. The strange part is that those who know Howe’s career best – and admire his achievement as much as any – will also be hoping Newcastle do not beat Liverpool today.
Topics
-
Eddie Howe: 'Chance to make history' in cup final
Eddie Howe has said Newcastle United have the chance to make history by beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.ESPN - 3d -
Eddie Howe reacts after leading Newcastle to first domestic cup in 70 years, first major trophy since 1969
Newcastle United have won a trophy at Wembley Stadium for the first time since 1955 after Eddie Howe led the Magpies to a 2-1 win over Liverpool on Sunday in the League Cup Final.Yahoo Sports - 18h -
Newcastle win EFL Cup over Liverpool: How the Magpies played the men and not the moment on historic day
Eddie Howe's side ended a decades-long trophy drought in style on SundayCBS Sports - 18h -
Eddie Howe is the best English manager since Sir Bobby Robson
This was a cup win that not only confirmed Eddie Howe is the greatest Newcastle United manager of the modern era, it suggests he is the best English one too.Yahoo Sports - 16h -
Carabao Cup final 2025: When is it, how to watch, latest news and odds
Liverpool will take on Newcastle in the 2025 League Cup final after their 4-0 demolition of Tottenham at Anfield. Arne Slot’s men triumphed 4-1 on aggregate to set up a Wembley showdown against ...Yahoo Sports - 1d -
Liverpool vs Newcastle player ratings: Mohamed Salah anonymous in Wembley defeat
Liverpool 1-2 Newcastle: Dan Burn and Alexander Isak scored as Eddie Howe’s side ended their long trophy drought on a famous day at WembleyYahoo Sports - 15h -
EFL Cup final: How to watch Liverpool vs. Newcastle, odds, live stream, prediction, channel, start time
Liverpool are angling for their first trophy under Arne Slot, while Newcastle are eyeing their first trophy since 1969CBS Sports - 22h -
Howe joy as Newcastle end 'years of hurt'
Eddie Howe hailed his Newcastle history makers as they ended 56 "years of hurt" with a 2-1 win against Liverpool in the League Cup final on Sunday."We were desperate to try and win the trophy after ...Yahoo Sports - 17h -
Howe on cup final squad fitness, Burn and 'chance to make history'
Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Carabao Cup final against Liverpool at Wembley (16:30 GMT). Aside from injured trio Lewis Hall, Sven Botman and ...Yahoo Sports - 3d
More from Yahoo Sports
-
USC NCAA Tournament opener will be on Saturday, March 22 at Galen Center
The Trojans will open the tournament against UNC Greensboro on Saturday at high noon in Los AngelesYahoo Sports - 8m -
USC NCAA Tournament opener will be on Saturday, March 22 at Galen Center
The Trojans will open the tournament against UNC Greensboro on Saturday at high noon in Los AngelesYahoo Sports - 8m -
PSG win over Marseille marred by homophobic, racist chants. It's an ongoing problem in French soccer
A French campaign group has called on the country's authorities to punish homophobic and racist chanting after the biggest match in the league between Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille was marred ...Yahoo Sports - 10m -
PSG win over Marseille marred by homophobic, racist chants. It's an ongoing problem in French soccer
A French campaign group has called on the country's authorities to punish homophobic and racist chanting after the biggest match in the league between Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille was marred ...Yahoo Sports - 10m -
Can Oregon basketball reach Final Four in March Madness bracket? Our prediction
Can Oregon basketball reach NCAA bracket’s Final Four? Our 2025 March Madness predictions show how Ducks can make run in tournament.Yahoo Sports - 10m
More in Sports
-
March Madness 2025: Duke's Cooper Flagg, Texas' Tre Johnson headline list of top freshmen in the tournament
Flagg, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, headlines a star-studded group of freshmen in the NCAA TournamentCBS Sports - 4m -
NCAA Tournament fields set; TPC playoff underway; Bengals extend star wide receivers
Auburn has the top overall seed in the men's field, while UCLA leads the women's drawCBS Sports - 4m -
NCAA Tournament fields set; TPC playoff underway; Bengals extend star wide receivers
Auburn has the top overall seed in the men's field, while UCLA leads the women's drawCBS Sports - 4m -
2025 MLB Opening Day starter tracker: Paul Skenes gets call for Pirates, Astros go with Framber Valdez again
The regular season is almost upon us and managers are getting their ducks (and rotations) in a rowCBS Sports - 6m -
USC NCAA Tournament opener will be on Saturday, March 22 at Galen Center
The Trojans will open the tournament against UNC Greensboro on Saturday at high noon in Los AngelesYahoo Sports - 8m