Donald Howe (12 October 1935 – 23 December 2015) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player, coach,

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

together with the

England national football team The England national football team have represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by the Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Eng ...

in his playing career. He also went on to manage sides West Brom, Arsenal, Galatasaray, Queens Park Rangers and Coventry City. Howe was also a successful coach and has been described as one of the most influential figures of the English footballing game.

Playing career

Howe was born in the Springfield area of

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

in 1935 and spent his secondary education at St Peter's Collegiate School. Howe joined the West Bromwich Albion ground staff after leaving school, joining the club as a youth player in December 1950. He turned professional in November 1952, but did not make his debut until 1955, against Everton. In all he played 379 league and cup games scoring 19 goals for the Baggies in twelve years. Howe was signed by Billy Wright's

in 1964, and was made club captain. However, in March 1966 he broke his leg playing against

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

and only played two further first team games both in September 1966. Firstly against Manchester City in the League on the 10th and then on the 13th against Gillingham in the League Cup. Howe made 70 appearances for Arsenal altogether. In 2004, he was named as one of West Bromwich Albion's 16 greatest players, in a poll organised as part of the club's 125th anniversary celebrations.

Coaching career

Howe retired from playing and became Arsenal's reserve team coach under Bertie Mee, then stepping up to first team coach after the departure of

Dave Sexton David James Sexton (6 April 1930 – 25 November 2012) was an English football manager and player. He was notable for managing Chelsea to their first European trophy. Playing career Son of former professional boxer Archie Sexton, he st ...

in October 1967. Arsenal won the Double in 1971 with Howe playing a crucial role. Not long afterward he returned to his old club, West Bromwich Albion, as manager. Howe's tenure at WBA was not a success, as the club were relegated to Division Two in 1973. Howe then joined

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

as a coach, later becoming assistant manager under

Jimmy Armfield James Christopher Armfield (21 September 1935 – 22 January 2018) was an English professional association football, football player and manager. He played the whole of his Football League career at Blackpool F.C., Blackpool, usually at right b ...

, before moving on to manage Turkish club Galatasaray in 1975. Howe rejoined Arsenal in 1977 as head coach, under Terry Neill. After Neill's sacking on 16 December 1983, Howe became Arsenal caretaker-manager and was appointed permanently after the game against Leicester City on 28 April 1984. Despite introducing young players including Tony Adams, David Rocastle and Niall Quinn to the team during the mid-1980s, he was unable to win trophies, as Arsenal finished either 6th or 7th under him, although they did briefly top the league in October 1984. After just over two years in the job, Howe resigned on 22 March 1986, shortly after Arsenal's match against Coventry City. George Graham succeeded him. This was subsequent to circulated reports that the board were looking at the time at

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

manager Terry Venables. Howe later joined

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

as assistant to

Bobby Gould Robert Alfred Gould (born 12 June 1946) is an English former footballer and manager. Early life Robert Alfred Gould was born in Wyken, Coventry, Warwickshire on Wednesday, 12 June 1946. He is the son of Henry Gould and Helen McKellar Gould ...

in 1987, and helped them win the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

with a shock win over

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1988. His coaching expertise earned him a great deal of credit for Wimbledon's cup triumph. Howe then left Wimbledon to manage QPR between November 1989 and May 1991, with Gould briefly assisting him in the first half of the 1990–91 season. In early 1992, Howe assisted Barry Fry with defensive work at Barnet. Shortly after leaving QPR, he became assistant manager to Terry Butcher at Coventry City and became manager in January 1992 when Butcher was sacked. Howe secured a place in the new

FA Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football ...

for Coventry, who missed relegation by one place, and just after the end of the 1991–92 season Gould rejoined him as joint manager of the Highfield Road club. However, Howe resigned as manager before the 1992–93 season began. He returned to Arsenal in 1997 as part of the

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

setup wherein as the head youth coach. Howe also moved into journalism and broadcasting, becoming a pundit for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's coverage of

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

International career

As a defender, he featured regularly in the

. Howe played in the

1958 FIFA World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the 6th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first and only FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Br ...

, and won 23 caps. He became part of the England national team's coaching setup in 1981, working under Ron Greenwood. When Greenwood retired a year later, Howe continued to work for the national team under new manager Bobby Robson. Howe became assistant for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

under Terry Venables from January 1994 to June 1996, finishing with England's semi final appearance as host nation at Euro 96.

Retirement

Howe retired from coaching in the summer of 2003 after more than 30 years. He though still ran youth coaching schemes across the United Kingdom. He occasionally wrote as a pundit for the

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

website. He also held a regular column in the official Arsenal magazine. Towards the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, he worked with the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) as part of a three-man panel to appoint

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian former Association football, football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Football in Italy, Italian football ...

as the new national team manager.

Death

Howe died, aged 80, in December 2015.

Honours

Player

Club

West Bromwich Albion

England

* British Home Championship: 1958,

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

, 1960

Assistant Manager

Arsenal * Inter Cities Fairs Cup: 1970 * First Division: 1970–71 *

: 1970–71 Wimbledon *

: 1987–88

Manager

Arsenal *

: 1978–79 * FA Youth Cup:

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

* FA Youth Cup:

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Individual

* LMA Special Merit Award: 2004 *FA Licensed Coaches Club Hall of Fame: 2013

References

External links

* *England stats – https://www.englandstats.com/player.php?pid=762 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Howe, Don English men's footballers England men's international footballers England men's B international footballers England men's under-23 international footballers Footballers from Wolverhampton English expatriate sportspeople in Turkey West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players English football managers Galatasaray S.K. (football) managers West Bromwich Albion F.C. managers Arsenal F.C. managers Queens Park Rangers F.C. managers Coventry City F.C. managers 1958 FIFA World Cup players 1962 FIFA World Cup players Arsenal F.C. non-playing staff 1935 births English Football League players Süper Lig managers Men's association football fullbacks English Football League representative players 2015 deaths English Football League managers English football coaches 20th-century English sportsmen