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TheOtherSpecialOne

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The story of A.F.C. Bournemouth is quite an interesting one.

In 2008 the club was only minutes away from liquidation and a year later they almost dropped out of the Football League.

Head to the present and we find that they have made a remarkable recovery and find themselves in the top tier of English Football, The Premier League. Indeed, they have achieved the impossible.

They survived liquidation but now they will face an entirely different battle, relegation. Through hard work the club managed to get itself to the place in which they are today but can they once more achieve the impossible and stay in the Premier League?

This is were I come in, I will be taking over A.F.C. Bournemouth and will be attempting to keep them in the Premier League and who knows maybe even achieve more to keep the wonderful tale of this club going.

A few things that you should know:

-I will be continueing the way in which Bournemouth have been operating for the past few years, meaning I won't be breaking the bank.


-I have disabled the transfer window for the season ahead and won't be bringing in any new players or staff members into the club. I will work with what I've got.


It's going to be a difficult challenge to say the least but if this club has proven one thing its that nothing is impossible.
You just have to have a little faith.


​
 
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The Club
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As you can see the current facilities are okay. The training facilities are okay but our youth facilities are somewhat lacking.

If we manage to stay in the Premier League I will definately be planning on improving our youth facilities as I feel that a good youth setup is very important, certainly for a team that don't have a lot of money to throw around.



The Stadium
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Our current stadium, Vitality Stadium (originally called Dean Court but renamed for sponsorship purposes), is the smallest in the Premier League by far providing space for only 11.464 people.

The stadium itself is also rather old dating back to 1910 but it has been rebuilt very recently in 2013.

Vitality Stadium:View attachment 205960




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The Squad
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Lets be realistic here, there is a reason why the media has predicted us to finish at the bottom of the league this season and that is because most of are players are Championship material rather than Premier League material. Atleast that's what I am told.

Personally I am rather happy with our current squad, it isn't the biggest in the league but I feel that we have most positions adequately covered and we do possess some excellent players that will be very important for us in the upcoming season.


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First up is Goalkeeper Artur Boruc.

Most of you are probably familiar with Boruc as he has been in the game for quite some time. Personally I feel that he could be very good for us.

His goalkeeping skills are decent and he also has some excellent mental attributes, he does lack in the concentration department though.

Overal a very solid experienced goalkeeper.


In the defence I feel that this man will be key:View attachment 205954
24-year-old Steve Cook.

Like you can see he is a very solid center back. He has some decent physical attributes, some good mental attributes and his technical ability is also very solid.


In the midfield area I feel that this man will be very important:
View attachment 205953
Normally I would have put Harry Arter in this place but as he is currently out injured I have chosen Andrew Surman instead.

I would describe Surman as a jack of all trades master of none kind of player. He is very solid all round and can fulfill both defensive and offensive tasks yet he isn't a true star at any of these aspects.

With his decent work rate and stamina he will be very important in keeping a balance at the center of the pitch and I have no doubt that he will be a key player for us in the upcoming season.


This brings us to the attack and I don't think that my choice will surprise anyone:
View attachment 205951
This man will be key for us, Callum Wilson.

No matter how good you play in football if you don't score you don't win, it's as simple as that. In Callum Wilson we have a player that can score goals and hopefully will score goals for us.

Overal he is a very good allround striker though he does lack in the jumping and heading department. This however can be dealt with, I have absolute confidence that if we create the chances then he will end up putting them in the net for us.


All in all I feel that these 4 players will be key for us in the season ahead and keeping them injury free will greatly increase our chance at survival.



Speaking of injuries;

Looking at our current squad I do have one major concern and that is the number of players that are currently out injured. What makes it even worse is that all of them would be key players for us had they been fit.


View attachment 205957
As you can see all these injuries are long-term injuries, in the case of Mings very long-term.

Like I said all these players would be very important for us had they been available but as things stand they aren't so we are just going to have to deal with it the best that we can.​
 
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Pre-Season Review
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As you can see we had some mixed results during pre-season. We started of rather badly and lost heavily to Leeds United and then narrowly lost against FC Den Bosch and PEC Zwolle.

The positive thing was however that we didn't play bad football at all, individual errors and lack of finishing simply cost us.

As the pre-season progressed we got some better results, we won against Volendam and drew against Rijnsburgse Boys. Now Rijnsburgse Boys are only an amateur team so this might seem like a terrible result but during pre-season we had suffered a number of injuries and due to lack of being able to rotate the players were simply exhausted going into this match.

We ended our pre-season with 2 wins against Dorchester and De Graafschap.


Overal not the best pre-season but we made some pleasing progress as we played more games and showed some good stuff at times.


Injuries
During pre-season we unfortunately suffered some injuries, the most notable ones being these 2:
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​
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This is an overview of our players that are out injured ahead of the new season

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A Look Ahead
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We are finally on the verge of getting the Premier League on the way so let's take a look at our first month at the top of English Football.

We start of the season with an home game against Crystal Palace then face Norwich City at Carrow Road.
Then we have another home game this time against Stoke City before playing a game in the Capital One Cup against an yet to be determined opponent. We finish of the month against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

Before the start of the upcoming season the board has reminded me of their expectations
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No complains here, the goals that they expect me to reach are all very realistic and should be achievable.​
 
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Our first game in the Premier League hasn't gone how I would have liked it to go.

The match was a very even one, Palace grabbed the lead after a brilliant pass from Puncheon set Bamford up for a 1 one 1 with Boruc, Bamford stayed very calm and scored a great goal.

In the second half I switched my tactics around and we piled up the pressure but our finishing let us down. In the final minuts of the match we went all out in attack but this backfired as Palace hit us on the counter and put the game to bed by scoring their second goal of the evening.

Not the best of starts but we put up a good fight, if our finishing was a little bit better we might have actually gotten something out of this match.​
 
Capital One Cup Draw
Before our game against Norwich City we gotten to know our opponent in the Capital One Cup
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This should be a win for us, but I won't be getting ahead of myself. If there's one thing that cup games have proven in the past its that they are never easy to predict.

So this brings us to the game against Norwich
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This game was always going to be an important one, Norwich are like us relegation candidates and a win against them could provide a boost for the upcoming season.

Unfortunately we started this game really badly and Norwich grabbed the lead after only 5 minutes had passed, they quickly extended their lead by 2 after 17 minutes had been played.

I encouraged my team to push forward and it worked as we got 1 back making it 2-1. The goal seemed to create a bit of momentum for us as we created some great chances but like the Palace game we forgot to convert these chances into goals. Norwich then totally against the run of the play did score however to make it 3-1 at half time.

For the entire second half we threw everything that we had at them but our strikers just couldn't convert any of them resulting in another defeat for us.
​
 
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Stoke City have had a bad start to the season just like us so I definately felt that something was possible here.

My hopes were quickly smashed as Stoke grabbed an early lead in the 11th minute only to double it in the 24th minute giving them a comfortable 2 goal lead.

Like the Palace and Norwich matches we played some good football but forgot to score. It took us until well into extra time to grab one back but at that point it was already too little too late. Still maybe this goal could provide a bit of a boost for us to push on.
​
 
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After 3 defeats in a row I was quite looking forward to this game as I hoped that a win here could encourage the team to push on in the league aswell. Oh how wrong I was...

Honestly I am starting to get a bit desperate now, as you can see from the statistics we once more dominated the game and created a massive amount of chances the only thing that was missing were the goals!

Our strikers just can't convert anything right now. I am actually very pleased with the football we are playing, we just need to finish our chances.

I guess the only positive here is that we have less fixtures to play which keeps us fresh for our relegation battle in the Premier League.​
 
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... strike lucky, seems to be the story of our Premier League campaign so far. Whoever we play against just strikes lucky and we don't. Atleast that is how it looks on paper.

Lets face the facts, in every single game that we have played so far we are equal if not better than our opponents statistics wise the only thing that is lacking are the goals to express this.

I am going to have a hard word with our strikers as their current performances are unacceptable, if we want to stay in the Premier League then we need to start putting the ball into the net.​
 
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August Review
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Well this certainly wasn't the start that I was hoping for. I always knew that this season was going to be a tough one but we definately should have gotten more out of this month then we did.

All of the Premier League losses are somewhat understandable but our loss in the Capital One Cup against Port Vale was simply unacceptable.



Table
View attachment 205342
After 4 games played we find that Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal are on top with 12 points. At the bottom we find, yup us. There are however only 3 points between us and the 14th place right now and the season is still early so no reason to panick yet.


Changes
Despite the fact that we lost every single game in August I am not completely unsatisfied though, while we haven't got anything to show for it we are playing some great football at times and are very equal to our opponents in every match, there is just one area that we need to improve in and that is our finishing, if we can convert our chances into goals then I would actually be very pleased with our current performances.

It is up to me to make this happen, first up I had a talk with Callum Wilson and told him that he hasn't been good enough lately. He agreed and I told him that I have faith in him to push through this bad spell, he appreciated my words and hopefully they can motivate him to go on and put in some good performances for us.

Then I took a look at our current tactics and made some subtle tweaks, hopefully this will lead to us scoring more goals then we currently have.

I also put every single attacking minded player that we have on an individual training schedule to improve their finishing.


A Look Ahead: September
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We now head into an international break and won't be playing another game for another 2 weeks. This could actually be a very good thing though as it gives us time to get familiar with the changes that I have implemented.

So September, we start the month of with an home game against Swansea, Swanse have had a mixed start aswell so there might be something possible here. We then travel to Old Trafford in what is going to be a very tough game against Manchester United before finishing of the month with an home game against Sunderland.

The Manchester United game is going to be a real struggle but I definately feel that if we can finally get some goals there are plenty of opportunities against Swansea and Sunderland.



​
 
As the month of August passed I was hoping that our fortunes would improve, unfortunately this was not the case as we received some bad news ahead of the Swansea game.
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Yup 3 injuries to some of our best players, this certainly won't improve our chances of turning our fortunes around but we'll just have to march on and keep our heads high.

We then headed into the Swansea game, would the changes that I made have any effect?
View attachment 205337In short yes, somewhat atleast.

We started the game badly against and Swansea grabbed an early lead, we kept our heads though and dominated the game from that point on agains created plenty of opportunities and then finally in the 43th minute Wilson was on the finishing end of one of these chances making it 1-1 at half time.

The second half went just like the rest of the season has so far, we dominated possession, created plenty of chances but didn't finish any of them causing the game to end in a 1 all draw.

While we still didn't get what we deserved I am glad that we finally have a point on the board. I hope that this will provide a bit of an encouragement for us as Manchester United are up next...​
 
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As we headed into this game we were under no illusions and knew that nobody would be expecting anything from us here. We proved them wrong.

Manchester United absolutely dominated the entire first half getting 2 goals in the proces, at half time I told my players to have faith and keep pushing on, they responded brilliantly.

In the 54th minute we made it 2-1 after a very lucky goal from Charlie Daniels got past the excellent De Gea. Manchester United seemed a bit shocked by this development and we even managed to equalise in the 66th minute after an excellent counter attack was rounded of by Marc Pugh.

Manchester United then put some heavy pressure on us but we gave it everything and in the end got a point to show for it.

It may be somewhat lucky but after all the bad luck that we have had I'd say that we deserve it!​
 
Good luck buddy - Im doing this save too. Injuries are a killer. Have you made any signings? what tactics are you playing?
 
Fantastic stuff my friend :) tough luck on the injuries and a rough start but keep the faith!
 
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After our great result at Old Trafford we went into this game with a massive confidence boost. Sunderland are currently in the 16th place while we are in the 19th position so a win here would be very good for us.

The team seemed to be aware of this as we started the game of in excellent fashion but the woodwork prevented us from getting an early goal. Luckily we managed to score an excellent team goal right before half-time to give us a deserved lead at the break.

In the 52 minute Cook then scored from a free kick to give us a 2 goal lead. Sunderland then got a really good chance themselved but failed to score. In the 70th minute Stanislas finished another fantastic team move of to give us a 3 goal lead.

Sunderland then received a red card and we were finally on course to get our first 3 points of the season, Sunderland did get 1 goal back though through Jermain Defoe but we reponded immediately by making it 4-1.

Finally we have managed to get our first win of the season and to do it in such a convincing manner only makes it better!​
 
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September Review
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September finally saw our fortune turning around as we managed to get 5 points from 3 games including a brilliant draw at Old Trafford!

Our excellent performances have also resulted in some of our players getting into the team of the week:

First Daniels and Pugh for the game against Manchester United gameView attachment 205320
And then Cook, Elphick, Smith and Ritchie for the game against SunderlandView attachment 205319

This wasn't the only recognition that we received however as Charlie Daniels was awarded Barclays Player of the Month September.View attachment 205318

Table
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After 7 games played this is the current table of the BPL.

At the top we find that Manchester City are currently in 1st place with Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham United completing the top 4. At the bottom we find that Aston Villa, Stoke City and Sunderland are in the relegation spots. Following our good month we find ourselves in 17th place just narrowly above the relegation zone.


A Look Ahead: October
View attachment 205316October is going to be a very difficult month as we face West Brom, Arsenal, Everton and Southampton

West Brom and Southampton aren't in the best of shapes at the moment so with a bit of luck anything is possible.
​
 
Better September than August but, unlucky with injuries so far mimicking real life
 
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