The Cherries on top - A Bournemouth Story

[Ovidexen]

AFC Bournemouth, nicknamed The Cherries, is one of English football’s most inspiring stories—a club that rose from near extinction to compete with the elite. Founded in 1899, Bournemouth spent most of its existence in the lower leagues, often battling financial difficulties and relegation threats. Their remarkable ascent began in earnest under Eddie Howe, whose leadership saw the club climb from League Two to the Premier League in just six years, culminating in their top-flight debut in 2015.

Today, Bournemouth continues to punch above its weight in the Premier League, blending youth and experience under progressive management. The current squad features a mix of exciting talents like Evanilson, Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen, Illia Zabarnyi, Antoine Semenyo and dynamic midfielders such as Ryan Christie and Lewis Cook, and emerging prospects brought in through smart recruitment. Despite their smaller stadium, the Vitality Stadium, with a capacity of just over 11,000, Bournemouth boasts a passionate fan base known for its loyalty, warmth, and vocal support.

More than just a football club, Bournemouth represents resilience, community spirit, and the belief that ambition can overcome even the steepest odds.

Can they take that one step further and bring European football to the Vitality Stadium and possibly a Premier League Trophy?

 

[Ovidexen]

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AFC Bournemouth, nicknamed The Cherries, is one of English football’s most inspiring stories—a club that rose from near extinction to compete with the elite. Founded in 1899, Bournemouth spent most of its existence in the lower leagues, often battling financial difficulties and relegation threats. Their remarkable ascent began in earnest under Eddie Howe, whose leadership saw the club climb from League Two to the Premier League in just six years, culminating in their top-flight debut in 2015.

Today, Bournemouth continues to punch above its weight in the Premier League, blending youth and experience under progressive management. The current squad features a mix of exciting talents like Evanilson, Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen, Illia Zabarnyi, Antoine Semenyo and dynamic midfielders such as Ryan Christie and Lewis Cook, and emerging prospects brought in through smart recruitment. Despite their smaller stadium, the Vitality Stadium, with a capacity of just over 11,000, Bournemouth boasts a passionate fan base known for its loyalty, warmth, and vocal support.

More than just a football club, Bournemouth represents resilience, community spirit, and the belief that ambition can overcome even the steepest odds.

Can they take that one step further and bring European football to the Vitality Stadium and possibly a Premier League

 

[CrokayVessel]

View attachment 693847

AFC Bournemouth, nicknamed The Cherries, is one of English football’s most inspiring stories—a club that rose from near extinction to compete with the elite. Founded in 1899, Bournemouth spent most of its existence in the lower leagues, often battling financial difficulties and relegation threats. Their remarkable ascent began in earnest under Eddie Howe, whose leadership saw the club climb from League Two to the Premier League in just six years, culminating in their top-flight debut in 2015.

Today, Bournemouth continues to punch above its weight in the Premier League, blending youth and experience under progressive management. The current squad features a mix of exciting talents like Evanilson, Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen, Illia Zabarnyi, Antoine Semenyo and dynamic midfielders such as Ryan Christie and Lewis Cook, and emerging prospects brought in through smart recruitment. Despite their smaller stadium, the Vitality Stadium, with a capacity of just over 11,000, Bournemouth boasts a passionate fan base known for its loyalty, warmth, and vocal support.

More than just a football club, Bournemouth represents resilience, community spirit, and the belief that ambition can overcome even the steepest odds.

Can they take that one step further and bring European football to the Vitality Stadium and possibly a Premier League Trophy?

Looking forward to this!

 

[Ovidexen]

Season One

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We begin season one as manager of AFC Bournemouth looking at the season preview where the media predict us to finish 17th just above the drop zone with the board and supporters expecting us to be in a dog fight for relegation from the Premier League, looking at the squad apart from possibly a few stars it looks like we could be in for a long season, we'll have a look at the squad properly and come up with a tactic that gives us some form of fighting chance.

The Squad

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Like i've already mentioned the squad isn't much to write home about although i will be looking to build a team around Evanilson, Illiya Zabarnyi, Milos Kerkez and Dean Huijsen all i believe are very good players for the level we are at they could all prove crucial to our season and with all still being a relatively young age they could also attract some attention from bigger clubs and help us bring in some much needed money into club something which i'll touch upon shortly.

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[Ovidexen]

The Tactic

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So considering the fact that we are predicted for a relegation battle i'm avoiding a tactic that focuses playing positively or tries to control possession, the current squad are mostly championship level i want to imply a philosophy of an attractive, attacking style football. I feel like this kind of football will help battle the odds hopefully pull up some results and will go hand in hand of some of the young energetic players we have at the club. I've opted for a 4231 Gegenpress on attack it does seem very gung ho but as i've stated we're up against it this season we can always reevaluate at the end of this season if we bring in some stronger players, just the focus this season is to stay up.

Finances & Sponsorships
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Aswell as trying to stay up this season another hurdle for the club is not only having the smallest stadium in the league by a country mile its also trying to compete with the biggest clubs in terms of sponsorship money, we're projected to make a massive loss by the end of the season and also have loan repayment of just under £500k a month! So its crucial to stay in the league for the tv revenue and if we can maybe have a good run and get European football in some capacity then would help massively but obviously lets not run before we can walk and just cement ourselves into more than a relegation scrap type of team.

Pre season and the first few games of the season

We went with a very easy pre season in all the games we played we were always considered massive favourites, the reason behind these games i picked was to try build as much momentum, form and squad dynamics as i could before entering a season that was going to already be difficult and as you can see from the results my thinking paid off with two massive results against Villa and Forrest, already Zabarnyi is becoming one of my favourite players and he has been an absolute rock at the back even bagging himself a goal in each of the games, hopefully this form isn't a flash in the pan and we carry it on for aslong as we can to get away from that drop zone.