Eddie Howe has a big decision to make about his future. Despite producing a battling display to defeat Everton on the final day of the season, his Bournemouth side still suffered relegation from the Premier League in agonizing circumstances.
The Cherries’ five-year stay in the top flight is over, and it leaves their manager tight-lipped as to whether he wants to continue at the helm in the Championship.
We assess the case for Howe to stay on at the South coast club, as well as looking at why now might be the right time for him to seek a new challenge elsewhere.
Eddie Howe: Should He Stay or Go?
Why Howe Should Stay at Bournemouth
“I am determined for Bournemouth to get back in the Premier League.”
That was the message Howe gave to the media in the aftermath of Bournemouth’s final day relegation.
Clearly, this is a manager whose love for the club remains undiminished. If he feels that he can be the man to mastermind a return to the top tier in the near future, Howe may well feel prepared to stay on.
After all, the man himself almost engineered a truly great escape in a campaign that went right down to the wire.
It has to be said that Bournemouth looked dead and buried a long time before their relegation was eventually confirmed.
A bruising home defeat at the hands of Newcastle United on July 1 left Bournemouth rooted to 19th place in the league table. That defeat left Eddie Howe looking at only one point taken from a possible 21 as a shambolic run of form made relegation seem an absolute certainty.
Yet, Howe somehow managed to rally his players to attack the Premier League’s final fixtures, saving some of their best performances of the season for the final five games.
Tottenham Hotspur were denied three points in a gritty display at the Vitality Stadium, Leicester City were blown away by a second-half barrage as Bournemouth beat them 4-1, and Manchester City were lucky to escape their home fixture with the Cherries with a win.
After that, Bournemouth were desperately unfortunate to have lost to Southampton in their penultimate fixture before that win over Everton came too little too late.
Howe will take solace from recent performances in spite of the final outcome they yielded for his side.
While their revival took place too late to save their season, the manager will know that Bournemouth can take that fighting spirit into a promotion battle in the upcoming Championship campaign.
Additionally, Howe has won such promotion battles with the club before, and in even harder circumstances.
He saved Bournemouth from relegation from the Football League upon his arrival as manager in 2009 and led them to promotion the following campaign.
When he came back for a second spell at the club, Howe led Bournemouth to two promotions in three seasons, taking the Cherries to the Premier League for the first time in their history.
This is a top-class manager who has been in this position before. If Eddie Howe can muster the energy to have another crack at the Championship with Bournemouth, he might just conquer it all over again.
Why Howe Should Go
Alternatively, the Bournemouth boss could decide it is time he parted ways with the club for a second time.
After all he has achieved in his time there, Howe owes Bournemouth nothing, and he is certainly not duty-bound to shoulder the burden of this relegation.
In truth, Bournemouth are not a club of Premier League stature, and the fact Howe has kept them in the top division for five seasons is a footballing miracle in itself.
Perhaps the 42-year-old has worked his magic within the corridors of the Vitality Stadium for as long as he can. This means a parting of ways could be mutually beneficial for both manager and club.
“In terms of feelings and emotions this has been the hardest moment of my career,” said the manager of the climax to this strangest of seasons.
“I feel very emotional. Very disappointed, sad and dejected – loads of different things but they are difficult emotions to feel.”
Howe has been at Bournemouth since 2012 and is evidently somewhat emotionally drained. He is feeling the pain and would need to fully recharge his batteries in a short space of time before the Championship season kicks off in September.
No one could blame him if he decides he is not ready or willing to do so.
Where Else Could Eddie Howe Go?
Should Howe step back from Bournemouth, he will do so having won plenty of admirers.
The 2015 winner of the Football League Manager of the Decade award remains a young manager and would need to choose his next move wisely.
Problematically, should that be a choice he makes this summer, there may not be too many options available, even to him.
The Premier League clubs all appear to be going into next season with settled managerial choices.
At the top end of the table, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has survived in the hot seat at Old Trafford and so too has Frank Lampard at Chelsea.
Jose Mourinho is settling in at Tottenham Hotspur, much like Mikel Arteta is doing at Arsenal.
Further down the division, Graham Potter has led Brighton & Hove Albion to their best Premier League points tally. In the North East, Steve Bruce has exceeded all expectations at Newcastle United.
Options are, therefore, limited for Howe at the elite level of the English game.
He may yet decide to take a well-earned sabbatical, or even to test his ability to manage abroad.
For now, Eddie Howe must suffer the pain of Premier League relegation after five stellar seasons in the top flight. Time will tell how he chooses to react to it.
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