Eddie Howe

Edward John Frank Howe (born 29 November 1977) is an English professional football manager and former player.

He is the manager of Premier League club Newcastle United.

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 together to create "Eddieshare" to fund a transfer fee.

Within days of creation, £21,000 was raised which funded the required permanent transfer fee.

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.

A centre-back during his playing career, Howe spent most of his playing career with AFC Bournemouth, coming up through the youth system and spending eight years with the club, before returning for a second three-year spell to end his career, and retiring from the professional game in 2007.

After a further three seasons and over 270 appearances, injuries forced his retirement as a player in 2007 and he then moved into coaching with the reserve squad.

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 sacked as manager.

Howe returned to Bournemouth as a youth coach under Jimmy Quinn and took over as caretaker manager when Quinn was sacked on 31 December 2008.

He entered management the following year, taking charge of a Bournemouth side facing relegation to the Conference National in January 2009 as the youngest manager in the Football League.

Under his guidance, Bournemouth were able to avoid relegation during his first season in charge, having started the season on minus 17 points, and were promoted to League One the following campaign.

After a brief spell as manager at Burnley, Howe returned to Bournemouth, and led them to two further promotions in three seasons, taking them to the top division of English football.

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 a 17-point deficit.

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.

He took charge of his 100th and final Bournemouth match of his first managerial spell with the club, later that day in a 2–1 defeat away to Colchester United.

Burnley finished eighth in the Championship in season 2010–11 and 13th in season 2011–12 under Howe.

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 compensation deal with AFC Bournemouth.

On 16 January 2011, Howe was announced as the new manager of Burnley after signing a three-and-a-half-year contract at the Championship club.

His first game in charge of Burnley was away to Scunthorpe on 22 January 2011, which ended in a 0–0 draw.

He left Burnley in October 2012 citing "personal reasons" for his departure.

He was subsequently named Football League Manager of the Decade in 2015 following three promotions in a seven-year period.

Bournemouth survived in the Premier League for the next five seasons under Howe, before suffering relegation to the Championship in 2020.

He resigned as manager of Bournemouth after the club's relegation.

At the time of his departure, Howe was the longest serving manager in the Premier League.

After a year away from the game, Howe returned to management in 2021 when he was appointed as head coach of Newcastle United following the takeover of the club in 2021.

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 Rossgarth, and Parley Sports before starting his professional career at AFC Bournemouth.