Jack Wilshere has just summed up why Newcastle United have such a special manager in Eddie Howe.
His side are under intense scrutiny right now following the defeat to West Ham, but there is no doubt that Eddie Howe remains the right manager for Newcastle United.
PIF only want Howe at Newcastle, having witnessed the club win silverware and qualify for the Champions League under his guidance.
You will struggle to find any current or former player say a bad word about Howe, and that is proven by Jack Wilshere’s latest comments about the Toon boss.
Wilshere, who now manages Luton Town, played under Howe at Bournemouth and believes he was even better than Arsene Wenger in one department.
Jack Wilshere and Eddie Howe laugh together after a Bournemouth win over West Brom.
Photo by Adam Fradgley – AMA/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images
Jack Wilshere says Eddie Howe was a better coach than Arsene Wenger
Having spent his full Arsenal career under Wenger, Wilshere unsurprisingly believes that the Frenchman is the best manager he has ever worked with.
However, when it comes to coaching on the training ground, it is Howe who takes top spot ahead of Wenger.
“I always say, if you ask me who’s the best coach on the grass I’ve had, it’s Eddie Howe,” Wilshere said on the Winter View podcast with journalist Henry Winter.
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“It’s Eddie Howe because of the energy and the detail he put in, and you could really see that he would get frustrated on the pitch, which is because he cared and he wanted it to be to a certain level.
“But the best manager I’ve had overall is Arsene. And when I think about what is that, it’s the belief he gave you, the way he made you feel, the environment he created.”
Why Jack Wilshere ‘clashed’ with Eddie Howe
The Newcastle United squad and fans know all too well that ‘intensity is our identity’ under Howe. That is a mantra that he has always lived by.
That came as a shock to Wilshere, who has admitted that Howe changed the way he viewed coaching at a time when he was struggling to handle the relentless nature of his training sessions.
“At times me and Eddie clashed,” Wilshere added.
“I love Eddie because he changed the way I saw coaching because I only had Arsene [before him], he was very different. So I stepped there and it changed the way I was thinking.
“But I remember clashing with him at times saying, gaffer, I can’t keep up with this intensity. And he was like, well, we’re going to have to pick when you train. And I was like, I can’t, some days let’s just settle down a little bit.
“And it was like, I swore him, he couldn’t believe it. He was like, no, no, you need to understand that these players, Charlie Daniels, Simon Francis, they’ve been on a journey with me since League Two. We have to work in this way to be able to compete at this level.”
Howe has since taken Newcastle United on a journey of their own. When he arrived following the PIF takeover, relegation to the Championship was a distinct possibility.
But Howe stuck to his methods, the players bought in, new recruits arrived and survival was achieved. From there, the club has snowballed into what it is today.
As he approaches four years as the Newcastle United manager, Howe’s mantra remains the same. His players must train as they play, and intensity is very much their identity.
That intensity was missing against West Ham on Sunday, which is why Howe was so let down.