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Ciaran Kelly

'That will be huge' - Eddie Howe's unannounced addition may give Newcastle a transfer advantage

Eddie Howe has been keen to surround himself with figures he trusts at Newcastle United and no one knows the Magpies' head coach better than his nephew, Andy.

The pair are especially close - Andy is the son of Eddie's sister, Rowena - and have previously worked together at Bournemouth.

However, Howe is ruthless enough to only recruit a staff member if he feels he can make a difference and his relative has a detailed knowledge of what exactly the 44-year-old looks for in a player, when it comes to their technical ability and character, and what he may need in the future.

An agent who has dealt with Bournemouth's former head of domestic first-team scouting has no doubt that he will be an asset for Newcastle in that regard.

"Andy knows his football," the representative told ChronicleLive. "Some people would say he's in a position because of nepotism, but I didn't see that myself. He never even mentioned Eddie.

"Even though Eddie has brought him up there, I don't think he would put him in the firing line if he wasn't capable."

There can be no disputing that his uncle has helped to open one or two doors over the years, but Howe has been determined to make his own name in the game and even stayed on at Bournemouth after his relative departed.

It has been a long journey to this point. Howe started off doing some voluntary coaching at Bournemouth's academy from the age of 15 - getting his UEFA Pro Licence just six years later - before he moved into the recruitment side. Howe then had spells as a development centre manager and a first-team player recruitment scout ahead of taking up a role as head of domestic first-team scouting.

Although Howe is still in his twenties, the talent spotter already has more than a decade of experience in scouting after previously working at Bournemouth, Burnley and Plymouth.

David Webb, who was Bournemouth's former head of recruitment, said that he trusted Howe's work 'implicitly' during their time together at the Vitality Stadium.

"Andy stood out straight away because even though he was very young when we worked together at Bournemouth, I didn't really see his age," he told ChronicleLive.

"I just saw that the quality of his work was very good, very detailed and very thorough. He would offer a real concise opinion and back it up with evidence. It wasn't just a hunch; it was always very measured and very precise.

"Having that knowledge, having been at Bournemouth for such a long time, and understanding how Ed works intimately gives him a little bit of an edge but you still have to produce the work so he just went about it quietly and diligently."

As well as helping to co-ordinate trips and speaking to analysts as Bournemouth's head of domestic first-team scouting, Howe filed reports from up to four games a week, whether it was top-flight fixtures or academy clashes.

Howe helped to identify targets aged 16-27 early on, sometimes before they had even beeped on other clubs' radar, and attempted to quickly strike up relationships with players' camps.

One representative told ChronicleLive that Howe was an 'agent's dream' in that sense because he was 'always open, always communicative and always got back to you'.

However, although Howe would let agents know he had identified their client, it could be several years before a formal approach would then be made.

Lloyd Kelly, for example, was tracked for five years; Lewis Cook was watched for around three years; and Aaron Ramsdale and David Brooks were both monitored for two years.

The young quartet's potential was clear, but Howe and Bournemouth's recruitment team were conscious of signing them at the right time because players' form can vary so much in those early years.

Anton Robinson, who was a recruitment consultant at Bournemouth, took note of that approach and can see why Eddie Howe has turned to his relative once again to try and unearth these sorts of players 'before the other big clubs' get to them.

"Looking at the psychometric side for player profiling is super important," he told ChronicleLive.

"At Bournemouth, I think you've got to be slightly ahead of the curve where players might not be hitting the stats that you want, but there might be a reason behind that if you can think outside the box and find them reasons and make them an advantage.

"That will be huge for Newcastle as well because, ultimately, they've been linked with every player under the sun and you need to whittle down the ones that can be right for the club and, also, right for Eddie's philosophy. Andy will be best placed to do that due diligence."

Ramsdale was, perhaps, Howe's most successful recommendation. The scout watched Ramsdale play for Sheffield United under-21s and noted how the goalkeeper ticked a number of boxes, technically, with his confidence in playing out from the back.

However, Howe made sure to keep monitoring the shot-stopper to see how he would react to making an error and, also, how he eventually fared in a first-team game before pushing for the £800,000 move in 2017.

Ramsdale proved an inspired signing - going on to be sold for £18.5m to Sheffield United - and these are the sorts of under-the-radar players Howe will look to identify for Newcastle while working with head of recruitment Steve Nickson.

Encouragingly, for Newcastle, on that front, another agent who has worked closely with Howe said the scout simply 'knew who had talent and why they had talent'.

"Andy could explain the ins and outs of a footballer which, for me, was impressive because some people in those positions can't and they don't know whose got talent," he told ChronicleLive. "They're just waiting for the hot players and then they go from there.

"But he was diligent. He did the leg work - his work ethic is up there - and he covered enough ground to be able to put a case together to the hierarchy of the football club to then potentially bring my client in.

"He highlighted the good, bad and indifferent and said where they could help. At one point, it was maybe that my client was not ready to come in just yet but maybe in six months' time if he got a few more games. He wasn't scattergun about anything. It was very methodical."

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