RETIRING Cherries star Richard Hughes has revealed he would willingly pay to watch an Eddie Howe team – but not one managed by Jose Mourinho.

Hughes, who is pondering an offer to join the club’s backroom staff after last week announcing he would be hanging up his boots, played alongside Howe during his first spell at Dean Court and under him for the past 18 months.

And the Scotsman, who also works as a pundit for BT Sport, has applauded Howe’s style of play and added to the recent criticism of Chelsea’s Mourinho.

The Portuguese came under fire for his tactics during Chelsea’s Premier League win over Liverpool and their Champions’ League semi-final against Athletico Madrid.

Denmark boss Morten Olsen slammed Mourinho as a “danger to football” and went as far as to say his approach would “kill the game”.

Hughes told the Daily Echo: “Mourinho is an outstanding manager and a very successful one. Everybody has an opinion on what the game represents, how it should be played and how they would like it to be played so each to their own.

“I would choose to watch a team that plays the style of Bournemouth rather than the type of football that Chelsea chose to do in a couple of high-profile games. When you have the abundance of talent they can call upon, you owe the game something different. That is just my perspective.

“A quote from Xavi from a few years ago has always stuck with me and he said ‘there has to be something bigger than winning or losing because, sometimes in a football match, the result can be an imposter, there has to be a legacy’.

“The teams people will look back on and do already are the ones which play a brand of football which interests millions and gets them talking and analysing all round the world.

“Whatever people may think of Pep Guardiola, what he did at Barcelona revolutionised the game and nobody could ever get bored watching his teams. I don’t think there is a lot to learn from teams which stick 11 men behind the ball and just park the bus.

“I would pay to watch an Eddie Howe team because they play an exciting brand of football, it is always expansive and they are always looking to win the game. I know you have to be organised and you have to defend well to win games but playing a type of football that spectators want to see is a major part of being a manager. The fact Bournemouth supporters love watching Eddie’s teams speaks volumes in that respect.

“I am not surprised at how well he has done because I have known him for so long and always knew he had a vision of how he wanted the game played.

“What I didn’t know was what it would be like working under him and it took me no time at all to realise how good a manager he was. He was better than more senior managers I had played under and his teachings are what make him as successful as he is.

“As a manager, conveying your message to players is the hardest and most important part of the job. You can have all the philosophies and ideas in the world but if you can’t transmit them to the people that matter, then, frankly, they are useless.”