LONDON : Newcastle United’s League Cup final triumph over Liverpool was not only a landmark moment for the club, it was also a throwback to a time when English managers regularly stocked up the trophy cabinets of the country’s top clubs.
Eddie Howe still has a long way to go to emulate the likes of Bob Paisley, Brian Clough, Howard Kendall and Bobby Robson, and remains something of an anomaly in the Premier League where only two of the 20 current managers are English.
But in becoming the first home coach to win one of England’s top domestic honours since 2008, Howe’s feat is a shot in the arm for English coaches plying their trade in the lower leagues.
Londoner Harry Redknapp, who won the 2008 FA Cup for Portsmouth and took Tottenham Hotspur into the Champions League for the first time, hopes Howe’s rise changes perceptions but laments the lack of home-grown managers.
“It’s sad that there’s only two English managers in the Premier League,” 78-year-old told reporters at Charlton Athletic’s Valley during the launch of the inaugural North versus South game in which he will return to the touchline.
“It’s sad that they don’t get the opportunities. The only way you tend to get there now is to take a team up. In (Howe’s) case, it was different.”
By his own admission, the 47-year-old Howe’s playing career was unremarkable. He came through the ranks at Bournemouth where Redknapp was cutting his teeth as a manager, and made nearly 300 appearances in the lower rungs of the Football League before injury forced his retirement in 2007.
A year later, with Bournemouth in financial turmoil and heading out of the Football League, Howe became manager, led them to safety and then to promotion the following season.
After a short spell at Burnley, Howe returned to take Bournemouth to the Premier League for the first time in 2015 and kept them up against the odds for five seasons.
“Taking Bournemouth from nearly going out of the league into the Premier League, it was crazy what he achieved there really,” Redknapp added.
BREAKTHROUGH ON TYNESIDE
Howe’s reputation as an articulate, fiercely-driven and progressive coach attracted Newcastle in 2021, shortly after they were bought by a Saudi Arabia-backed consortium.
Newcastle had managed five points from 11 games before he was appointed but he led them to safety. The following season they finished fourth and reached the Champions League.
On Sunday, Howe made sure he will enter Newcastle folklore as his side won the club’s first domestic trophy for 70 years.
But could Howe’s breakthrough on Tyneside persuade England’s top clubs, and even the national team, to look closer to home for managers?
“You’d hope so,” Redknapp said. “But it’s all foreign owners now. They come in, they get brought into clubs by agents who probably recommend some manager to them.
“It’s certainly getting tougher, but I think given the opportunity, there’s lots of good lads out there who could do the job. But I don’t know, there’s such a shortage.
“When the England job came up recently, I’m wanting to see an English manager. I’ll be honest, I only saw Eddie. I didn’t see anybody else. I thought Eddie was the only one. No one else jumped out at me as a real candidate.”
No English manager has won the Premier League title in its 33-year existence and the last time one managed to even come runner-up was Kevin Keegan, with Newcastle, in 1996.
The challenge now for Howe will be to prove that Sunday was no flash in the pan, and that he can become the trailblazer for a new generation of English coaches.
