“I’m a bit of an overthinker with everything I do, whether it’s in football or out of football, but I’m also a bit of a dreamer as well. You have these moments in football. Sometimes it’s the hope that kills you, if it doesn’t work out.”
Jonny Howson thought he had lived his dream. Howson grew up three miles south-west of Elland Road, in Morley, Leeds, played 225 times for his hometown club, captained them and won promotion from the third tier in 2010.
He moved on to Norwich City and then Middlesbrough, where, after a 19-year career, he finished last season with 754 professional appearances, including 104 in the Premier League. At 37, however, the dream continues.
It was his brother, Daniel, who confirmed the rumours which had been circling in July. He posted an image on Facebook of a Leeds training shirt with the initials ‘JH’ printed on it. He said one of the club’s favourite sons was returning to West Yorkshire as a player-coach with the under-21s.
Within a week of that, before any announcement had even been made about Howson returning, he was pictured playing in a pre-season friendly at Hartlepool United. It was jarring. Howson was frozen in time as a fresh-faced academy product for a certain generation of Leeds fans, but here he was, a grizzled, bearded veteran. He’s an old face for the new era.
After more than 13 years away, Howson is back in the fold to complete the most treasured arc of his career.
“(At the) back of last season, I started thinking, ‘This could be it for me’,” he tells The Athletic. “You naturally start (thinking), ‘What do I actually want to do because I’ve got to really start to focus on it’.
“It helped that Scott (Gardner) mentioned that (a coaching opportunity). That is certainly something that interested me.”
Gardner, United’s Under-21 head coach, played alongside Howson when they were children in the academy, starting together when they were nine years old. They lived together through the formative teenage years of their careers, and Gardner left the door open to his old pal for a reunion.
Howson playing for Leeds’s Under-21s (Leeds United)
Howson had started studying for his coaching badges while he was still a player at Middlesbrough. He has completed his UEFA B Licence and hopes to enrol on his A Licence in 2026, but while he studied on Teesside, he wondered when or where he might take the leap into coaching.
For eight seasons in a row between 2016-17 and 2023-24, Howson logged more than 3,000 league minutes a year. You had to go back to 2011-12 for the last time he played less than 2,000 league minutes.
The midfielder was a machine for his whole career, ever-dependable and so rarely injured. But last season, 2024-25, he dropped to 1,396 league minutes with Middlesbrough. As that campaign unwound, he wondered if the writing may be on the wall.
What would he do if that next contract offer did not land? Martin Diggle, United’s academy manager, had used an ex-pro, Jay Spearing, in a similar player-coach role during his time at Liverpool’s academy. He and Gardner have given Howson the route home he wanted.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I know it was the right decision,” says Howson. “When you’re going into something new, it’s a bit daunting (not knowing) what to expect, but there was excitement because it’s Leeds, what the club means to me.
“It helps with Scott because I’ve got on really well with him. If I’m coming into a new role, he’s someone who can help me feel comfortable.”
Once it had been decided he would retire from playing full time, Howson resolved to move into that next opportunity as quickly as possible. Some former players, he admits, can benefit from taking a year out before their next challenge, but he also knows some have struggled with that adaptation.
“I never wanted to have time away from football,” he says. “You see a few people who have adjusted from however many years where you’ve been told what to do, you’ve had structure to your life, you’re doing this, there’s purpose to your life. I might have struggled with that.
“It’d have been great because I’d have had time on my hands, and I could have gone to watch my kids play football more. I’d have loved that and even now, at times, I wish I had more time on my hands to go and enjoy life bits, or be a father and go and watch my lad play on a Sunday, but this is also my life as well.
“This is what we’ve got to work for, you’re obviously doing it for certain people, and I’m glad I’ve had that quick transition.”
Scouting had appealed to him as a post-playing route, but coaching, and most probably managing, is where his interests have wandered. He’s open-minded to it not working out, but he wants to at least know he has given it a go.
Michael Carrick was Howson’s head coach through the final three seasons of his career at Middlesbrough. Carrick, just seven years older than Howson, would invite him and the other club employees undertaking their badges into tactical sessions or video analysis. Howson’s growing interest in what he was seeing convinced him this was the route he wanted to follow.
Alex Neil, who coached Howson at Norwich, stands out. “He was the first one who opened your eyes tactically,” he says. “When he came from Hamilton (Academical), we were a bit unaware of him as a team and even from a personal point of view.
“As soon as he came in through the door, the videos, the analysis, the tactics would just open your eyes like, ‘Wow’. That’s a real talent.
“What he put across to us made sense. Some can be really tactically in depth, but it’s like, ‘There’s too much information coming at me’ or, ‘What’s the first thing, never mind the 10th thing’. He just had that real knack of getting through to you.”
Getting through to the next generation is one of many battles Howson has to win if he is to be as successful off the pitch as he was on it. He insists that his past reputation or successes, particularly as a Leeds player, are no guarantee of being a good coach.
The Athletic is in attendance as Howson plays in central defence against Athletic Club B in the Premier League International Cup. Alongside him is Jacob Howard, who was born the day after Howson played in United’s March 2009 win over MK Dons.
For youngsters like Howard, Howson is from another era entirely.
“I’ve got to show I care as well,” says Howson. “It’s not just a case of me walking in here and going, ‘I used to captain the club, listen to everything I say. If you don’t, you’ve got no chance; if you do, you’re definitely going to make it.’
Howson playing for Leeds against Manchester United in 2010 (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
“I’ve got to show them I’m passionate about what I do and that I’m willing to give them my time, even if it means staying in a few extra hours to give them five minutes of something I think might benefit them.
“Past playing experiences take me so far, but now, I’m coaching and I’m starting (afresh). Jack Wilshere has gone in at Luton (Town). He said, ‘Jack Wilshere, the player, is gone, judge me now as a coach’. That’s no different to how I see it.
“‘I’m here for you. It’s not just a job for me to come back because it’s local, and it’s just for me to pass the time and pick up a wage or whatever. I want to be successful too.’”
Howson remembers the help Shaun Derry and Jonathan Douglas gave him when he first broke through to the Leeds first team in 2006. They let him know they were there for him, options he could always give the ball to in tight moments.
The advice he offers to Howard and others in the Bilbao clash is interspersed with moments of class, which have the limited York crowd gasping with delight. It’s the sliding tackles followed by game-splitting passes which have the biggest impact.
Daniel Farke only half-jokingly talked about the impact Howson could still have on his first team if he had not stopped playing first-team football. The German had him for a few weeks at Norwich in 2017 before he was sold.
“He was such a great lad and such a top player,” said Farke. “I always told him, with his quality and his calmness on the ball, he can play until (he’s) 45. When I watch him over on the other pitch, I see how smooth he is still on the ball and composed. I’m tempted to call him up for our training.
“We had a bit like an in-house friendly in the international break. I told my players, ‘Listen, Jonny Howson, (I know) we spoke about how we want to press, (but) he’s unpressible. You don’t even have to try it’.
“He’s top class. I won’t call him up, but to have a lad like him around, with his personality, with his Leeds roots, then as a role model for the young lads, it’s a perfect thing.”
Howson is relieved Farke didn’t mention the moment he had tried to press Joel Piroe in that game, only for the Dutch striker to flick the ball around the corner and leave the veteran for dust.
Returning to Thorp Arch, United’s training ground, was a big moment for Howson. Club chef, Izzy, is one of the few faces he remembers from his last time there in January 2012.
“It was nice for me and there was excitement of coming to get involved, or the first time we reported back up to Thorp Arch,” he says. “I’ve not actually been here since I left.
“Elland Road’s a bit different because I’ve been down there a few times with the opposition. I’ve been there, seen it, odd games I used to come back to, certainly when they were in the Premier League.
“The training ground, you’ve never been to, or you get the training kit and it’s like, ‘Oh, putting the shirt back on’. Of course, it’s nice, I’ve grown up in the area. This was the only team I knew for however long.”
Howson allows himself a moment to reminisce as he is asked what this all means to him now that his senior playing career is over and he can look back. He says he finds it hard to take compliments and will often deflect when fans praise him.
He loves being reminded of goals or matches he may have forgotten about because they all mean something different to each fan. He does allow himself some pride in the number of appearances he racked up over 19 years.
It’s the reception, though, that gets him. It’s been about more than football for him; it’s been about being a good professional, but an even better human being.
“I do feel extremely lucky I’ve got this chance,” he said. “It happened at Leeds, it happened at Norwich, and it’s happened at Middlesbrough, but I’ve left those clubs and I’ve been able to go back and I’ve got a positive reception.
“Those moments have meant more to me than sometimes the actual footballing moments, whether it’s scoring a goal or winning a game or whatever. They’ve arguably been the biggest moments of my career because you’ve left a football club for whatever reason, but people have still respected you.
“It means you’ve done something right as a footballer, but, more than that, you’ve probably been a decent guy. There’ll be a lot of talented footballers who might have had a certain attitude, go back to a club and they’re not perceived like that.
“I (already) felt extremely lucky, but then, to get another chance to come and work for the club, I feel proud I’ve been able to do that. Whether it’s Scott or Martin, for them to highlight, ‘Yeah, Jonny would be a good one to come in to this role’, it means I’ve done something right throughout my career.”