EDDIE Howe didn’t always seem destined for big things in football – but now he has the chance to pilot a course back into the Premier League for Burnley.

Injuries wrecked the most promising of playing careers – but instead of accepting life on the soccer scrapheap, Howe dug deep to stay in the game and become one of the most sought after young bosses around.

The 33-year-old was a star in the making when he was born in High Wycombe back in November of 1977 before his family settled in Dorset and Howe’s football road to glory began.

As a young defender with Christchurch amateur team Parley Sports, Howe did more than enough to attract the attention of Dorset neighbours Bournemouth, who signed him on as a 17-year-old.

Despite his young age, Howe soon broke in to the Bournemouth first team and produced a string of performances to earn many admirers and selection for the Football League side that played their Italian counterparts in a friendly, as well as caps for the England Under-21 team in the Toulon Tournament in 1998.

After 201 games for the Dean Court outfit, Bournemouth’s south coast neighbours Portsmouth Cherries picked Howe, who was the first signing made at Fratton Park by Harry Redknapp for a fee of £400,000.

All seemed good until a knee injury ended his season after just a month at Fratton Park.

Howe returned for the opening game of the 2002-03 season against Nottingham Forest, but he injured his knee again after only nine minutes and was ruled out for the entire campaign.

He didn’t return to full fitness until January 2004 after 18 months on the treatment table and was loaned to Swindon Town on deadline day, although he did not feature for the club.

Portsmouth loaned Howe back to Bournemouth for the first three months of 2004-05 and he was a major success on his return to his first club.

So much so that in November 2004 Bourne-mouth re-signed him on a free transfer but only after chairman Peter Phillips made an initial appeal for fans to pledge money to buy Howe.

Those adoring fans raised an astonishing £14,000 for their hero in just two days.

He played another 53 games for the Cherries before he was appointed player-coach by manager Kevin Bond. He retired from playing in the summer of 2007, after he was unable to recover from yet another knee injury.

In September 2008, Howe lost his job when Bond, the son of John Bond, was sacked but he returned as a youth coach under Jimmy Quinn and took over as caretaker manager when Quinn was sacked on December 31, 2008.

Even though his two games as caretaker were away defeats, Howe was hired as permanent manager on January 19, 2009 and brought the club out of the relegation zone despite a 17-point deficit.

At the start of last season, Howe won eight out of the nine games, a club record, and turned down an approach from Peterborough for his services.

That decision paid off as despite a transfer embargo, Bournemouth secured promotion to League One.

Last week Howe turned down both Charlton and Crystal Palace claiming his heart was Dean Court as he faced the fans outside the ground in a contrived press conference with chairman Eddie Mitchell.

But the lure of Burnley and that prospect of of a push for the Premier League proved too much.

And the rising star now has the chance to become a shining star.