[Closed] Now, I don't follow the round ball game, but.....

AFC Bournemouth in the Barclays Prem.....who'd of thunk it eh?

Good effort!

Bah! 🙁

Memories of Ted MacDougal and a rather horrid green and black stripped kit.

Good for them!!

Well done Bournemouth (semi-disgruntled Bolton fan here)

I can't believe it. I just can't believe it . I stood outside the old dean court shaking buckets asking for cash to keep them afloat in 97 as a 16 year old.

Joy of joys !

They've got to be every neutrals favourite team next season.
Wonder if Hollywood will make a film about them?

Yes well done to the cherries!

It's brilliant seeing a club this small making the big time. They're probably the smallest club since my team Swansea got promoted 4 years ago in a very similar rags to riches story. Funnily enough there was a film made about that last year called 'Jack to a King' - would be an interesting watch for any footie fan whether you like Swansea or not.

Fair play to Charlton...one of the best tweets of the season 😀

[IMG] [/IMG]

Brilliant!

@dd that's excellent, great news for Bournmouth I've been following their progress all year and they thoroughly deserve it. They have an international airport too don't you know 😉

Minor factoid is that Nigel Spackman who went on to play at Chelsea and Liverpool started his career there, even less relevant was that we where in the same class at college.

Well done Bournemouth! Used to be one of my favourite away trips when I was a regular Reading follower, when we were both shit.

Can i do my cynical bit now..... as a Reading fan whose been to the promised land a couple of times now.

The PL is rubbish for clubs like ours. The first time you get there, you see the novelty of seeing Rooney and Sanchez and Hazard and (in my day, Torres, Ronaldo, etc.) all come to your ground and you can't believe it's happening. And then you get to see them on MOTD, and you tell yourself this is real, and you've made it!

Then you get mullered every week, and Alan Hansen's pointing out how shit your defence is, and on Monday Night Football Gary Neville's drawing lines showing what a donkey your centre forward is... and all of a sudden you can't buy a point and you haven't even scored for 5 games, and it's only October and already the bookies aren't accepting bets on you going down. And there's another 7 months to go before you play anyone you can beat (apart from in the FA Cup, but then you're everyone's tip for a 'giant' killing because you're playing the reserves to focus on the league, and your big money Lithuanian panic transfer window signing doesn't even understand the magic of being repeatedly kicked up in the air by a plasterer from Nantwich on a cowfield in the arse end of nowhere. On a cold January afternoon)

Until finally around this time of year the relegation is confirmed (and it's only taken this long because there's 4 other teams who are equally as shit as you. One of which is Sunderland, because it always is, but they'll escape somehow) And you act disappointed, and you might even throw the remote control as an act of defiance, but your heart isn't really in it. And your best players will leave, and the manager gets sacked (the same one that you declared undying love for just 12 months earlier) and then you undergo rebuilding because you can't afford the wages.

And then it starts again. And despite all this, you'd give anything to win the Championship and go up because this time it'll be different.

Jeez, I hate being a football fan. It's fun at the time, but it's the after effects, the self loathing. I could give it up if I wanted to, but why should i, it's only myself I'm hurting.

Stay in the Championship, with an aim of winning more games than you lose but ultimately losing in the playoffs and avoiding the need for all that nastiness. It's the future.

that's about fair, thotherjonv

... but that false hope really is addictive. As a very much lapsed Boro fan I still have fond memories of our golden treble season - 2 lost cup finals and then relegation due to a points deduction

Despite my token "Bah" up there, I'm glad to see Bournemouth go up. I like the cut of their jib and Boro is mostly Chelsea reserves anyway, which I don't much like

Stay in the Championship, with an aim of winning more games than you lose but ultimately losing in the playoffs and avoiding the need for all that nastiness. It's the future.

Here here!

Signed,
Forest fan.

Btw, congrats to Bournemouth 😉 Incredible achievement.

If (when) Sunderland go down, it'll be nice to see us win a few games.

As a soon to be disappointed Ipswich fan living in Derby, I know what this must mean to Bournemouth fans. And they've done it playing decent football and banging in goals.

I hope they enjoy next season, and get a few more in the Premier League afterwards. Let's hope they are sensible with their expectations and finances, tough line to tread for smaller clubs trying to stay in the big time.

Mind you this has been funded on Russian money.....more of which may be forthcoming to give them a decent chance of staying up.

@theotherjonv, great post. The PL hasn't been too bad for Swansea and after a rest in the Championship Southampton are back in style. If Bournemouth are smart they will make sure they turn a decent profit in the PL and if they can stay up then so be it.

With 'old 'arry living round the corner perhaps he can give them some advice

I have to say I am definitely up for a game or two there.

With 'old 'arry living round the corner perhaps he can give them some advice

A very, very happy man.

[b]NSFW[/b]

If Bournemouth have any sense they'd bar Harry from the ground now. They really don't need that kind of help. As has been said backed by a wealthy Russian and apparently one of the highest wage bills in the division. Eddie howe seems a good manager though. His sort of progressive style would be great to see at the England national setup.

I dunno if anyone else listened to the 5Live commentary last night but I was in stitches. Such classics as "There would need to be a bigger Swing on Saturday than one of those parties you have round your house"
The interviews with the guys sitting next to the commentary box were brilliant as well. Good work boys.

True enough Andrew Bird. But I'll see your Swansea and raise you a Leeds, a Bolton, a Wigan, a Blackpool, a Fulham, and if the season was 3 games longer, us as well.

Serious point. The disparity in money and wages and everything that goes with it gets bigger each year despite whatever FFP is supposed to do to reduce it. It's like walking a tightrope, as long as you stay steady then it's not so hard. But once you start to wobble, it's almost impossible to correct, the wobbles go from side to side, get bigger and bigger, and when you fall you fall hard.

It happens so often it's not coincidence, a side gets promoted, chucks money at it on the back of TV revenues and sponsorship deals, last a couple of seasons and then go down. Then you have maybe a window of 2-4 seasons to get back in. This time it's for keeps. If you can stabilise at that point, you can really start to budget on the basis of a prolonged stay. If you go back down again...... then you're in trouble.

Yet every year, we hope it's us again................

Stay in the Championship, with an aim of winning more games than you lose but ultimately losing in the playoffs and avoiding the need for all that nastiness. It's the future.

That seems to be Derby Counties plan!

5 points clear at the top a few months ago - nah that'll never do. We need lose all that lead and have to grind a result out on the final day just to stay in the play-offs.

...and Mr Brolly is off to Newcastle at the end of the season.

Oh - good luck to Bournemouth - if I were in their shoes I'd treat to PL as a few months jolly! Spend bugger-all, take the windfall cash and have security for a good few years.

Good luck Bournemouth, doing it playing great football!

Have to say I worry about a club with a large wage bill and tiny ground (<12000*) in the Premier League though. I hope there's an exit strategy.

*for reference I think the next smallest is Loftus Road at ~19,000.

theotherjonv - that is spot on

As a disgruntled Bolton fan I hope Bournemouth enjoy next season but it can be a hard slog. Bolton were completely outclassed last night.

Oh, and that Charlton tweet - saw it last night, brilliant.

As mentioned Swansea have done it . No reason Bmth can't. UTCIAD!!

As has already been mentioned, it's not quite the romantic 'little club' story it first seems. They have a billionaire backer, were able to spend 3m on one player last summer and escaped FFP sanctions by the skin of their teeth this season. They did very well to rise from the foot of League 2 to the top of League 1 with very little money but once the money came in it stopped being about luck.

Saying all that, well done Bournemouth. Hope you turn out to be a Burnley/Swansea rather then a Blackpool/Wigan/Bradford.

From a Leeds fan who has just about had enough of football and the crooks in it.

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muffin man - if they'd stopped the season in January, Derby and Ipswich could have gone up automatically, and my dad's beloved Sunderland would still have been there to greet us - three happy generation in the MoreCash household

I feel we should commend Rorschach for his commitment.

Next Seasons Burnley. The team everyone would really like to stay up, but in reality......

Next Seasons Burnley. The team everyone would really like to stay up, but in reality.....

I just want Sean Dyche to stay up. Hopefully he'll get given the West Ham job, if Burnley go down.

Time to start reminding people of my days playing for AFC Bournemouth in my youth I think!

[i]It's brilliant seeing a club this small making the big time. They're probably the smallest club since my team Swansea got promoted 4 years ago in a very similar rags to riches story. Funnily enough there was a film made about that last year called 'Jack to a King' - would be an interesting watch for any footie fan whether you like Swansea or not.[/i]

Although Swansea were in the big time once before under John Toshack....the Cherries have never been there.

after a rest in the Championship Southampton are back in style.

This does rather gloss over the bit where they dropped to league 1 and went into administration.

Edit: On the Swansea point, the stadium Bournemouth play in is smaller than The Vetch used to be and only just over half the capacity of the Liberty... They're a tiny, tiny club - by ground capacity they'd be in the bottom half of league one.

They are certainly the "smallest" club I can think of who have made it into the first tier in my lifetime, Dean Court only holds 12,000. I guess Wigan are a possible as they were elected to the league in my life.

The DW holds 25,000*. Oldham at Boundary Park would be the smallest - though only for the first two seasons of the PL.

*in theory

That's why I said a possible, although before promotion to the PL, Wigan's average gate was less than 12,000.

EDIT: Oldham were in the first tier in the early 20s and as a Huddersfield fan that was a very important era! No obvious criteria for judging the smallest but Bournemouth are certainly in the mix.

I dunno if anyone else listened to the 5Live commentary last night but I was in stitches. Such classics as "There would need to be a bigger Swing on Saturday than one of those parties you have round your house"

Was in the car on the M25 - proper lol moment!

As for QPR having the next smallest ground in the PL, well, really can't see them staying up now anyway

Although Swansea were in the big time once before under John Toshack....the Cherries have never been there.

TBH I don't think ground capacity is the be all and end all…not when you get supposedly £80-plus million coming through TV money. Obviously a club with a ground with 50,000 will generate more money than one with 20,000 (us). We caught a cautious approach when we were promoted re: stadium expansion. It was 20,000 and is STILL 20,000 even though the demand is there - there's been talk of expanding it to 33,000 a few years ago - they're doing a feasibility study with the fans now.

As brilliant as it is to see B'mouth promoted, it seems their story isn't quite as romantic as everyone would have you believe. They've got a quiet benefactor and are allegedly paying a striker who sits on the bench £36k a week!

Good luck to 'em though - nice to see some new blood up there 🙂

Can i do my cynical bit now..... as a Reading fan whose been to the promised land a couple of times now.... etc etc

excellent rant, I really enjoyed that.

10/10

As for bournemouth ... remember reading half a doaen years ago or more how a young manager had got them out off the preverbal, to stop them dropping out of the football league. Is he still in charge and taken them all the way?

Is he still in charge and taken them all the way?

Yup! He's the Football League Manager of the Decade no less!

We [s]caught[/s] took a cautious approach when we were promoted re: stadium expansion.

As for bournemouth ... remember reading half a doaen years ago or more how a young manager had got them out off the preverbal, to stop them dropping out of the football league. Is he still in charge and taken them all the way?

Yes - Eddie Howe is still there.

After a brief (unremarkable) spell at Burnley. I hope he doesn't get poached and ruined by a larger club too soon.

Nothing more exciting than a relegation battle - Leicester fan

I reckon the relegation scrap is going to go right down to the final minute of the final game. Its bloody tight down there at the bottom. I still really hope Burnley stay up. Though they look doomed 🙁

I'd love Villa to go down. They've been loitering around at the bottom of the premiership, like an eggy fart, playing absolutely dire football (every woeful 0-0 draw they grind out has 'last game to be shown on MOTD written all over it) for far too long. Be off with you, and do a Leeds!

Burnley and Sunderland are doomed, I'd say. QPR look like they might have a good game in them, but that'll probably be against Forest next year. I'm with Binners on Villa, so hopefully they'll drop. 🙂

Villa's been overdue a fall from grace for years - footie dullness redefined.

I'd love Villa to go down.

Villa's been overdue a fall from grace for years - footie dullness redefined.

But but but... "Sleeping Giants"!

Anyone checked the pulse on that sleeping giant recently?

I think it might be dead. 😯 😀

To be fair, Villa have been a lot more entertaining since She r wood replaced Lambert. I'd still like them to drop though along with Sunderland and maybe Newcastle, just because of Mike Ashley .

To be fair, Villa have been a lot more entertaining since She r wood replaced Lambert

lets be honest though.... It would have been a physical impossibility for it to become [i]less[/i] entertaining! Why people continued to pay good money to watch that crap, is beyond me. They've been the least entertaining team to watch, by a country mile, for years now.

If they go down, like they should have done years ago, theres no chance they'll ever make it back up. And thats a blessing for all of us 😀

I don't post on here that often but as a Cherries fan of 30 years, I thought I'd better join in.
The last few years have been a real roller-coaster and, as a club that's been right on the brink of extinction on several occasions, we can and should rightfully enjoy every moment of this - regardless of what may or may not happen in the future.
The main thing that irks me is the whole outside view of the "Russian Owner". Yes, we have but he has not bank-rolled us in the way that many think. Someone mentioned earlier about signing Callum Wilson for £3million, which is true. However he was a direct replacement for another player sold for a greater amount. The majority of our players have been with us since League 1, with a couple from League 2. The Russian finance has meant that, rather than spending money willy-nilly on players to buy success, we have been able to reject the advances of clubs who have historically been able to come in and pinch our players for peanuts, (or sometimes less)! In addition we have been able to develop the infrastructure and facilities of our stadium, which may be very small by PL standards, but have enabled us to develop the kind of free flowing, attacking football we've seen week in week out.
This is all probably way too much detail for STW...and I've had to restrain myself too but, the fact is that Championship teams used to view us with a certain amount of pity mixed with a pinch of "Ahh Little old Bournemouth". Now that we've humbled some of these "Big" teams, we've become a target. I love it!
UTCIAD!

Albino. Not knocking you at all - how can I after the Russian debacle, and now the Thai's coming in. You deserve your days in the sun and you should damn well enjoy them. They've been the best team in the Div to watch this year, even if Watford's league position says otherwise, and Eddie Howe can probably walk to Europe on his next scouting mission after what he's done.

I loved the first season (and I have somewhat glossed over that we surprised a few and nearly made Europe for the sake of embellishing the rant). It's the subsequent relegation and the return and then being utterly useless in our second time up, and everything that came with it that soured it.

But the point is basically true. There's 3 leagues in the Premiership. The top 4, maybe half dozen are challengers; they're fighting for titles and ECL spots and the big prizes. There's a second league of maybe another 8 sides, fighting for their position in that 8 and if you come high up and cups go to top 4 sides, you might get a bonus Europa league spot or something.

And then there's the league that our clubs are in. The other half dozen. And like the hunters and the lion, it often isn't how shit you are, but how much more shit someone else is that'll decide it. Which is how the likes of Villa and Sunderland survive by being the 4th shittest team in the league.

So yes, have a great day when Mourinho brings his allstars to visit. And I do sincerely hope you do surprise a few and collect a few scalps on the way. But the games to turn out for, to really support the team and ensure you get the points that matter are going to be the grimy Tuesday nights away at places like Villa and Burnley.

Plus, being in Bournemouth all your away trips are proper away ones!!

To round it right off - my mum's from Newcastle, and they were the first team I ever saw. My grandad had me in a black and white babygro and took me all the time to SJP (sorry, the Sports Direct Arena at SJP. Actually, scrub that and F*CK OFF ASHLEY). So I've the dubious distinction of supporting two teams that have amassed 11 points out of the last ten games each. Terrific.

I don't post on here that often but as a Cherries fan of 30 years, I thought I'd better join in.
The last few years have been a real roller-coaster and, as a club that's been right on the brink of extinction on several occasions, we can and should rightfully enjoy every moment of this - regardless of what may or may not happen in the future.
The main thing that irks me is the whole outside view of the "Russian Owner". Yes, we have but he has not bank-rolled us in the way that many think. Someone mentioned earlier about signing Callum Wilson for £3million, which is true. However he was a direct replacement for another player sold for a greater amount. The majority of our players have been with us since League 1, with a couple from League 2. The Russian finance has meant that, rather than spending money willy-nilly on players to buy success, we have been able to reject the advances of clubs who have historically been able to come in and pinch our players for peanuts, (or sometimes less)! In addition we have been able to develop the infrastructure and facilities of our stadium, which may be very small by PL standards, but have enabled us to develop the kind of free flowing, attacking football we've seen week in week out.
This is all probably way too much detail for STW...and I've had to restrain myself too but, the fact is that Championship teams used to view us with a certain amount of pity mixed with a pinch of "Ahh Little old Bournemouth". Now that we've humbled some of these "Big" teams, we've become a target. I love it!
UTCIAD!

Are you really saying that you'd be in this position without the Russian billionaire? As good a David and Goliath story as it is you have had significantly better resources then many in the Championship.

Oh, and I like how the 'manager of the decade' failing at Burnley having left the south coast for 'bigger things' is happily glossed over.

Bitter? Yeah, probably but let's get things in order.

The worm has turned! We actually scored at Rotherham (still lost though)

Apparently the fans were singing 'How sh*t are you; we scored a goal" to the tune of Tom Hark

theotherjonv - I know you weren't 🙂 Just needed to get it off my chest. Reckon you'll be competitive next season.

@Chestrockwell

Are you really saying that you'd be in this position without the Russian billionaire?

As good a David and Goliath story as it is you have had significantly better resources then many in the Championship.

And it just got better!!

Champions, AFC Boscombe and Bournemouth as it used to be on my old subbuteo listing.

And LOLLAGE at Derby. Our first win in yonks. But given how much your fans crowed at us on the day we went down despite stuffing you 4-0, I'm trying really hard to feel sorry for you but I can't.

After another truly abysmal performance, it looks like Newcastle are right in the mix for heading in the opposite direction now.

Tight as a gnat's chuff. Never thought there'd be a better manager than Shearer

Championship trophy parade tomorrow. My Dad is heading down so will take some photos of the lads . Just had to end that way with Sheffield Wednesday fans singing for Bournemouth

The battle for safety is crazy, we've won 5 out of 6 and still remain a point from the drop zone.

I was invited to a trial at Bournemouth when I was s school. Everybody took the mick but I was dead chuffed. I've always had a soft spot for them.
I couldn't go for the trial. My dad broke my wrist the day before. I think he did Bournemouth a favour :-). I went to Luton a few months later instead. Where are they now? Not in the Premier League. That's for sure......