Talking football with Eddie Howe is special

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Ted MacDougall loves watching games today as much as he always has because he wants to know what works well and what doesn't on the pitch. There's always something to learn about the beautiful game.

Ted has a great time whenever he catches up with Eddie Howe.

"This is a fantastic game because it's an opinionated game. We can watch this game today and you'll see beauty in something today in something I don't see. That not because I'm right and you're wrong. It's you're opinion and this is what makes this such a wonderful game for talking. Because in defending you might see beauty - I hate it.  No I'm not saying I hate it, but you know what I'm saying. It's my point of view from my eyes.

"It's like when I was coaching, they had other coaches and they'd be watching my sessions and what I did and I found that very difficult and the reason being is that I was coaching from what I was seeing from my eyes, not from a book. In America it's like, A passes to B and B passes to C and crosses it, and so on. I don't see that. So it's very difficult if you are going to follow me, because your eyes are going to see something totally different," said Ted.

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But coaching is one thing Ted likes about Eddie Howe. "He's just such a wonderful person and he's done so well. He's done great. I come over and like yesterday, and he's in his office and I'm on the board in his office and I'm telling about this free kick and different stuff. He's like come on then and he's got me moving the discs round. He's just fantastic," said Ted smiling. "I'd finished it and he was like - Oh, I thought you were going to show us our free kick, one that we can score from it?" he said.

Ted's association with the Howe family goes back a long way though. "I wasn't scouting when Eddie Howe went to Portsmouth, but I was instrumental in getting his brother Stevie Lovell to Pompey," said Ted. "We payed £500,000 for him from here, Bournemouth. And it was fantastic, I've told Eddie that story where his mum came into Portsmouth and my office. He had a chance to go to other places and she said I'm going to send him to you, because I trust you. And I thought that was nice. And I told Eddie that story and I didn't know his mum had past. I was sorry to hear that. She was really, really nice. So I have always felt a closeness to Eddie and the family.

If you would like to read more about Ted MacDougall's career and his amazing football tales make sure you pick up a copy of 'Ted MacDougoal!' with its new Reflections chapter.