This past Wednesday, a small team from the South Coast of England put three past Arsene Wenger’s Gunners and were arguably unlucky not to beat one of English Football’s big clubs. In a week where Preston North End can claim to have rattled the Gunners too, it seems difficult to imagine that the Preston scenario would be more plausible than Wednesday’s just a few short years ago. The club I’m talking about is, of course, Premier League mid-table side AFC Bournemouth.
English football can broadly be categorised into two basic types of clubs. The ones with a rich and storied past and the one struggling to make ends meet. On one extreme, we have the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and even Newcastle United who can seat more than 50,000 fans in their respective grandiose stadia.
The other end of the spectrum has the perennial also-rans whose glory often comes with a cup run to the 4th or 5th round. The likes of Scunthorpe United, Cambridge United etc. make up this part of the footballing pyramid. Another such club was AFC Bournemouth.
Before the 1980’s, the club's biggest achievement was reaching the third division of English Football. This would all change in the late 1980’s, which is where our story begins.
1980-2000: A glimmer of hope turned into a false dawn
Like many before it, the unassuming club from the South of England had a small, but passionate fan base but it was perennially in the shadow of rivals Portsmouth and Southampton. Their current spell in the Premier League represents the first time they have ever played in the first tier of English Football. In fact, they only made the second division in the late 20th century under one Harry Redknapp.
The fairytale didn't last and they dropped back down to the 3rd division soon after. Redknapp departed and was replaced by another well-known name in Tony Pulis. He would resign two years later as the board continued to tighten purse strings with growing debt-plaguing Bournemouth. Their relegation to the third tier saw them become a solid mid-table side but off the pitch, problems began to mount.
In 1996, Bournemouth legitimately came within 15 minutes of being shut down but was saved by a supporter’s trust and Bournemouth became a community club. While this was a noble idea, it led to stagnation and ultimately decline due to a lack of regular funding. The very next year the club became insolvent and a local lawyer cum hero stepped in to become chairman and saved the club.
The lawyer who went by the name of Trevor Watkins did another thing that would eventually play a huge role in Bournemouth’s rise up the divisions; he signed defender Eddie Howe on a seven-year deal.
On his return, Howe once again fell in love with his hometown club and began a loving tryst that continues till date. Watkins is revered as a hero by the Bournemouth faithful as he endeavoured to and succeeded in saving the club. The second part of the story saw Bournemouth reestablish itself in the third tier or League One. But it wasn’t to last.
The 2000’s: Struggle to survive
In the mid-2000’s Bournemouth once again gained promotion to the third tier before relegation swiftly followed as the club's financial troubles of days past returned to haunt their future. At the end of 2007-08 season, Bournemouth were relegated to League Two but that was the least of their problems. In February of 2008, the club went into administration and their future was once again in doubt. There was only one bid to buy the club but fell through and the debts rose to £4 million.
£4 million may seem an insignificant amount to some of us who support the biggest clubs in the land, but for a club the size and stature of Bournemouth, it was enormous. The lack of a takeover meant that the team’s participation in League Two during the 2008-09 season was in doubt as the Football League threatened to revoke their participation along with that of Rotherham United.
Eventually, they were allowed to participate, but with a mammoth seventeen point deduction.
Meanwhile, the owner announced that without an immediate investment of £100,000, the club would cease to exist. This resulted in the second time AFC Bournemouth called upon their fans to save the club in just over a decade. Although they didn’t know it yet, the investment would pay off quite handsomely.
The cost cutting around the club led to them appointing the youngest manager in all of the Football League. This was a moment that would change the course of Bournemouth’s history.
Into the hot seat came a 31-year-old fan favourite by the name of Eddie Howe. It wasn’t all easy for him, however. Howe had to overturn a deficit of 17 points and took over when Bournemouth were ten points adrift at the bottom of the table of League Two. Eventually, it all came down to one cracker of a game.
Howe took charge against Grimsby Town in the penultimate game of the season with Bournemouth needing a victory to ensure the future of the club as a whole. The years of hardship and fan effort led to this make or break match. Thankfully for the Cherries, they won courtesy of an 80th-minute winner by Steve Fletcher, which caused a pitch invasion by the gleeful supporters.
Avoiding relegation from the Football League was the first step in a long haul for Bournemouth and it served as the beginning of a journey that they could have never envisioned. The summer of 2009 saw Bournemouth taken over by a consortium led by Adam Murry and including former board members. The Cherries luck began to turn.
2010 till date- Going against the script
In their first full season under Howe, Bournemouth finished second in League Two, achieving promotion and proving many a doubter wrong in the process. Following their promotion, Howe departed for Burnley but his successor Lee Bradbury led Bournemouth to the League One playoffs. Defeat in the semifinals was heartbreaking and the following season saw them unsuccessful in their quest for promotion as they finished a disappointing 11th in the 2011-12 season.
The team struggled next season under Paul Groves, who was given the reins after he was promoted after handling the youth team. And when time came for action, the prodigal son returned home as Eddie Howe took charge once again and dramatically turned around their season. Under Howe, they not only staved off relegation but also achieved promotion as runners-up of League One to the Championship for the first time in over 2 decades.
The next season Bournemouth finished a tidy 10th, their highest ever placement on the English Football Pyramid. It was around this time that Howe imposed his ideas on the team and created the slick and neat Bournemouth we saw against the Gunners on Wednesday.
It wasn’t just Howe’s magic that did the trick, however. Russian businessman Maxim Demin bought 50% stake in the club in 2011 and by 2013 he was the majority owner. But he wasn’t a sugar daddy like Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City. He was more of a saviour.
Bournemouth’s spending increased but it just levelled the playing field rather than giving them an unfair advantage. Demin’s signings were young players, not superstars. Unlike many of today’s trigger-happy owners, he allowed Howe to imprint his style on the team.
The 2014/15 season saw IT finally happen. The humble Seasiders from the small town of Dorset with a small stadium overcame the odds. Bournemouth, with their slick passing style, charismatic manager and enthusing fans won the Championship and with it won promotion to the big leagues. Their achievement must not be belittled. The Vitality Stadium can only host 12,000 or so people. That’s less than 1/8th the capacity of Old Trafford.
It has been described as resembling of a training ground for a big club but that didn’t matter to the players. Under the aegis of Howe and powered by the goals of Callum Wilson, Bournemouth would serve as the 'entertainers’ of the league but unlike Newcastle in the 1990’s, Bournemouth would go the distance.
The tale of Bournemouth and their rise up the divisions is one of the most inspiring and most definitely appeals to the romantic in all of us. That of Swansea perhaps rivals it, but this surpassed even the expectations of Howe and the board. Eddie Howe and his appointment show the benefit that longevity can bring. True to his word, Bournemouth have not been intimidated by the Big Boys of the Premier League and have remained true to their passing style.
The world could do with the positivity that Bournemouth’s style brings and under Howe, it seems that their journey is far from complete, but rather that it has just begun.
