EDDIE Howe feels he is “fighting” as a manager – just as he did during his playing career.

The Cherries boss, who will tomorrow celebrate the sixth anniversary of his return to Dean Court, insists he will never feel satisfied with his achievements.

Howe piloted Cherries from the base of the Football League to the Premier League across two separate spells before presiding over 16th, ninth and 12th-place finishes.

This season, the Dorset club have made their best start to a top-flight campaign and are just two points off the Champions’ League places after eight games.

And despite possessing an enviable CV, the 40-year-old, whose playing career was ended prematurely by injury, says his desire to achieve burns as bright as ever.

Asked how he continued to motivate himself, Howe told the Daily Echo: “That’s something I have never struggled with and I think it’s down to my playing career and maybe even childhood aspects where I felt really frustrated with my sporting success.

“I was very sporty and had varying degrees of success but was never a natural winner. I never won the 100m on sports day, I would come second or third.

“The fact I wasn’t winning at everything I did has driven me all my life. My playing career was a mixed bag and I felt I was fighting every day to stay in the profession rather than winning cups and getting promotion.

“I've never lost that feeling. It's in-built within me. And I’m in a position now where I feel I can really influence a group of players without the limiting factors of height and injuries.

“That’s what motivates me to win every week. Waking up every day, I don’t think ‘how am I going to get through today?’, I think ‘what difference can I make to the group of players I’m managing?’.

“I’m never one to sit back and say ‘we’ve done great, we’re doing well and I’m happy with where we are’. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that in this job and I never felt that as a player.

“As a player I thought ‘when is the next training session? The next game? I have to prove myself all over again’.

“I feel the same as a manager. I have to prove myself to the players every day.

“What I deliver on the training pitch has to be of the very highest standard and if it’s not, then I’m very critical of myself and my coaching team.

“There’s no reflection in the sense of patting each other on the back, it’s more: let’s try to win the next game’.”