“THIS promotion is historic. To do it automatically with a very low budget in the grand scheme of this division, I’m not sure those sorts of markers will be achieved again.”

Those were the words of Sean Dyche a year ago, when Burnley remarkably gained automatic promotion to the Premier League.

It was hard to imagine then that within 12 months the Clarets’ headlines would be overtaken by Eddie Howe and Bournemouth.

Even if Burnley manage to pull off an unlikely escape this season, they would not be the smallest club in the top flight next term.

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Bournemouth have spent some money in transfer fees this season, and it would be interesting to see the wage bill comparison between Howe’s squad this season and Dyche’s squad a year ago.

But that does not diminish just what Howe has achieved in his two spells at Dean Court.

Only six seasons ago I saw Bournemouth play at Accrington Stanley in League Two. That afternoon they were 3-0 down within 20 minutes, 12 points adrift of Football League safety and facing mutiny among their own supporters.

Howe replaced Jimmy Quinn as manager a month later. Bournemouth somehow survived that season, went up the next and two more promotions have followed since Howe returned to the south coast following his spell in charge of the Clarets.

No-one deserves this success more than Howe.

He is one of football’s genuine nice guys, a pleasure to deal with during his time at Turf Moor.

It is pretty much impossible to find anyone in the media, or pretty much anywhere for that matter, with a bad word to say about him.

Howe did not get the promotion to the Premier League he wanted in his spell at Burnley, with defensive frailties their Achilles’ heel, but he laid a lot of the foundations.

A manager’s signings often define him. It is easy to make mistakes in the transfer market but what money he did spend at Burnley, he invariably spent wisely.

It was Howe who signed Charlie Austin, Danny Ings, Jason Shackell, Sam Vokes, Kieran Trippier and Ben Mee. Not a bad list, all in all.

That same astuteness in the market is a big reason why he has now become a Premier League manager.

Callum Wilson, Yann Kermorgant, Matt Ritchie, and in his first spell the Bacup-born Marc Pugh and Harry Arter. None were proven at a high level but all have succeeded.

During his time at Burnley, some suggested Howe did not have the steel required to reach the very top.

Those doubts seem like an irrelevance now.

Football is not about screaming and shouting.

It is about recruiting good players, and making them better.

As it turns out, Howe does that rather well.