Don Howe

Died: 23 December, 2015

DON Howe, who has died aged 8, after a long illness, was one of the outstanding coaches in British football.

Throughout his playing career, with West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal, the Wolverhampton-born Howe mainly wore the number two shirt in just short of 500 first-class games. Then, in his post-playing career as a coach and manager, he was much more successful as a number two, mainly concerned with coaching and day-to-day work with players on the training ground, than he ever was as number one, or club manager.

He joined Albion straight from school, as a ground-staff boy in 1950, signing his first professional form as a 17-year-old in 1952. He was doing his national service when Albion shattered everyone's dreams by beating Preston North End in the 1954 FA Cup Final, thereby denying Sir Tom Finney his FA Cup winner's medal and it was not until 1955 that the young Howe made his first team bow, against Everton.

Recognition with the England Under-23 team soon followed, and, in October 1956, he made his full England debut in the Home International against Wales. This was the first of 23 full England caps, all earned in succession, before the arrival of future England captain Jimmy Armfield, at Blackpool, saw Howe's international career ended after just two years and one month.

In that time, however, he played in England's 4-0 win over Scotland at Hampden and all the games in England's less-than-stellar campaign in the 1958 World Cup Finals in Sweden. The friendships which Howe forged during this intense spell of international football, however, were to serve him well in the future.

His international career over, he became club captain at West Brom, before, in 1964, after more than 400 games for the club, he was surprisingly transferred to Arsenal, then being managed by his former England captain and fellow Black Countryman Billy Wright.

Wright wanted an experienced skipper for the young Arsenal team he was building and Howe fitted the bill, although, after a mere 70 games for the Gunners, a broken leg all but ended his playing career. Howe, however, had, like his erstwhile WBA and England team-mate Sir Bobby Robson, been encouraged by England manager Sir Walter Winterbottom, to pursue coaching qualifications, and with Wright replaced in the Highbury manager's office by Bertie Mee, Howe became Reserve Team Coach, before being promoted to First Team Coach with the departure of Dave Sexton.

The promotion of former physiotherapist Mee to manager seemed a strange move, but it worked, not least because Mee was happy to leave the Monday-to-Friday work on the training ground to Howe, who began to get the best out of the Gunners' squad, never more so than in 1970, when the UEFA Cup was won and a year later, in1971, when they pulled off a dramatic Football League and FA Cup "Double".

Certainly that double-winning squad had a sprinkling of "flair" players, such as Charlie George, whose goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup Final sealed the double, and the three Scots – skipper Frank McLintock, Eddie Kelly and George "Stroller" Graham, but, the organisation which Howe's work on the training ground installed in the squad was a key element.

Howe's part in the triumph had not gone unnoticed and he was lured back to West Brom as manager in his own right, but the move was a failure, the Baggies were relegated and Howe moved on, back to doing what he did best, as assistant manager to Jimmy Armfield, who had picked up the somewhat poisoned challenge of restoring the fortunes of Leeds United, following Don Revie's departure and the hurricane which was Brian Clough's disastrous, brief reign.

Armfield and Howe guided Leeds to European Cup Final defeat to Bayern Munich, before Howe again dipped his toes in management, with Galatasaray in Turkey. This moved lasted one year, before he was back in England, and, after a short spell on the dole, back at Arsenal, as coach to manager Terry Neill.

During this period, Howe joined the England coaching staff at the behest of team manager Ron Greenwood, this relation with the national team continuing when old Baggies team-mate Robson succeeded Greenwood. This proved to be a successful reunion, culminating in the pair guiding England to fourth place in the 1990 World Cup.

At club level, he succeeded Neill as Arsenal boss, and, while the club did not pick up any trophies during his reign, they were consistently in the top ten in the old first division (now the premiership). He resigned in 1986, the last Englishman to manage this most English of clubs, to be succeeded by George Graham; while Howe crossed London to become assistant to Bobby Gould, managing Wimbledon's Crazy Gang.

Back as a number two, Howe played a huge part in Wimbledon's iconic 1988 FA Cup Final win over Liverpool, Laurie Sanchez's winning goal coming straight from a Howe-devised training ground move.

Howe had another go at management in his own right, at Queen's Park Rangers, with no more success than he had had elsewhere, before, when Terry Butcher moved into management at Coventry City, his first move was to recruit Howe as number two.

Butcher failed and moved on, Howe stayed, secured the Sky Blues a place in the new premier league, then, after bringing in Gould as co-manager, he resigned in 1992; it was the last time he actually managed a club.

He had a short spell as a journalist and pundit, on Channel 4's Italian football coverage, before Terry Venables brought him back into the England coaching team in 1994. He resigned from England after football came home for the 1996 European Championships, returning to Arsenal as youth team coach.

He retired officially in 2003, but he continued, right up until his health no longer permitted it, to work as a coaching consultant, with particular emphasis on proper coaching of young players.

An old-fashioned right-back, Howe was a no-nonsense coach who taught and lived by the basics of the game. He might well have flourished better in a European environment, where all the first-team coach has to worry about is the team, the off-field stuff which is such a key part of management in Britain being left to others.

When his record is surveyed, his talent as a coach cannot be disputed, his influence will live on, long after his death.

Don Howe is survived by Pauline his wife and their children and grandchildren.

MATT VALLANCE