Former Bournemouth defender Ian Harte has expressed his joy at Eddie Howe joining Newcastle United.
The 43-year-old was announced as the club’s new manager on Monday afternoon, agreeing a two-and-a-half year deal with the Magpies.
The move has delighted Toon fans, who are happy to see the club finally appoint a manager following Steve Bruce’s exit last month. Not only that, they’re happy to see a young coach arrive with aspirations of playing attacking football.
Howe will see a lot of familiar faces when he arrives at Newcastle for his first day of training. He managed Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser and Matt Ritchie down on the south coast.
And another former Bournemouth player has been full of praise for Howe.
Harte ‘delighted’ for Howe
Former Republic of Ireland left-back Ian Harte wrote on Twitter: “Delighted for Eddie a fantastic manager and person.”
Kind words from Harte, who was signed by Howe back in 2013. Harte added experience to the Cherries, and made 35 appearances in all competitions across two seasons at Bournemouth.
It was Harte’s final club before retiring in 2015, and he’s an example of good recruitment from Howe. That’s often been a point of criticism of Howe, with expensive deals for Jordon Ibe and Dominic Solanke not reflecting well on the Magpies’ new boss.
But those deals don’t tell the full story. He’s done good business in the past, and Harte is a great example of this.
He felt the club needed experience in the second tier of English football, having achieved promotion to the Championship in 2013. Harte brought exactly that, and he retired shortly after leaving Bournemouth.
You’ll struggle to find someone who has worked under Howe who has a bad word to say about the new Toon manager.
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