NOT that he realised it at the time but Eddie Howe’s managerial philosophy began percolating as he watched Everton lift the FA Cup in 1984.

At six-and-a-half years of age, the wide-eyed youngster took in English football’s annual showpiece hoping to see Watford win but became struck by the wonder of the boys in blue.

Graeme Sharp and a controversial second from Andy Gray handed Toffees the trophy and that was it – they had inadvertently won Howe’s heart.

“I remember watching that great Everton team many, many times and they certainly played some very good football,” Howe told the Daily Echo ahead of Cherries facing his childhood team in a league match for the first time today (3pm).

“I don’t think you really take it in but on a subconscious level, it shapes your views and how you enjoy the game being played.

“Many others over the years have inspired me and made me fall in love with the game but Everton, in that spell in the 80s and for a time in the 90s, were a formidable side.

“One of my big inspirations is wide play. I am obsessed by certain things in football, how full-backs and wide players develop relationships and how partnerships within teams come together.

“If you look at that Everton team, the partnerships from the two centre-halves, the two midfielders, the wide players and full backs and the two centre-forwards, they were all in sync. It was very much a feature of what they did.”

Fast forward a decade and Howe began to force his way into the first team at Dean Court but any hope of becoming one of those dazzling wizards soon got extinguished.

His school of hard knocks did, however, push him towards the meticulous nature that would serve him so well in management.

“I’d have been the slowest winger in the history of the world,” he quipped.

“I think every defender is a bit of a frustrated attacker. I was certainly frustrated that I wasn’t better technically so I had to make do as a defender and especially with my height, that was sometimes difficult.

“I was always the type of player that had to think about the game and maybe my lack of an outstanding attribute contributed to that. If I had been lightning quick, I could have knocked the ball and ran, had I been six-foot-four I could have just stood there and headed it.

The fact I came out the size I did meant I had to be quite intelligent in what I did to be successful at the sport.

“The managers I played for forced that upon me. I remember Mel Machin having many chats with me to say ‘if you hit long balls, you won’t play in this team. You have to learn to pass the ball and pass it effectively’.

“They were great conversations for a 17-year-old who knew nothing about football trying to forge a career. I was blessed to have some very good managers who steered me in the right direction.”

Another 20-odd years on, with Howe turning 38 on Sunday, those old habits die hard.

Week after week, the Cherries boss reiterates his desire to stick to the principles that have brought him success with the latest incumbent at Goodison Park providing professional inspiration to this day.

“The very best managers, the people I admire the most, they have never changed or wavered,” said Howe.

“Roberto Martinez never changed his style at Wigan and his team got better and better because they had a consistency in their way of working.

“That is certainly what we are trying to establish here and I would like to think we will get our rewards for that at some stage.

“Whatever your way is, you have to have a method. If you don’t, what are you going to do day to day?”