Roy Hodgson seeks helping hand from Don Howe
Saturday 26th February 2011, 11:29AM GMT.
Boss Roy Hodgson hopes to persuade Baggies legend Don Howe back to the club’s training ground to assess the current side.
Hodgson is hoping the former Hawthorns defender and manager will visit the club to watch training and offer his opinion on the team.
The men have been friends for more than 30 years and Howe was a regular visitor to Fulham’s training ground when Hodgson was in charge of the Cottagers.
Hodgson said: “I’m hoping he will come up to see us from his home in north London.
“He used to come and see us at Fulham. When the weather gets warmer and the drive get easier, then I hope he can come up to have lunch with us, watch training and chat to me about his opinions like he used to at Fulham.”
Howe, now aged 75, was born in Wolverhampton and became an Albion legend during almost 12 years at The Hawthorns, making 379 appearances as a marauding full-back.
He had a less successful spell as Baggies manager in the 1970s but remains one of England’s most respected coaches ever. And Hodgson revealed how memories of chats with Howe and another Baggies great, the late Sir Bobby Robson, sold Albion to him.
“I’ve found what I expected here,” said Hodgson. “It’s a club with a great tradition and a big heart.
“There is a warmth here that you don’t always get at clubs.
“We just need to tighten things up and make certain we put out a team that is capable of getting a result.
“Bobby Robson took me on my preliminary coaching badges when he was player-manager of Fulham in the late 60s and I got to know Don Howe with Terry Neill when I went to (Swedish side) Halmstad in the late 1970s.”
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