Written by kirsikka
So here we sit with half of our league matches played. What’s the assessment on how it’s gone, and where the season may go from here?
Before the season started, I thought I knew who we were and where we stood. We were investing in the training complex and giving relatively small amounts to strengthen the playing squad. The season ahead was going to be a tough battle, but I was happy to accept relegation, if it came, as the price to pay for off-field investment this time around. We weren’t an exciting team to watch but we had a very strictly defined style of play and system.
(Former AFC Bournemouth head coach) Scott Parker blew that up within a month. Realising he wasn’t up to the job of getting an inferior squad to perform better as a team than the individual sum of their parts, he tried to destroy the team, and in the process talked himself out of the job and avoided another relegation on his cv.
I’ve seen some sympathy towards him and what he said of late. Don’t buy it. What he said may have been technically correct on a man-by-man comparison, but good managers are able to do more with less. He’s merely an average one and he knows it. And no good manager will ever call out his players in public in the way he did. Don’t let subsequent events allow you to forgive the way he behaved as it was a disgrace.
Into that twisted mix, came the protracted takeover and new AFC Bournemouth owner Bill Foley talking Billy Big Boots. Add to that a reported fruitless pursuit of Marcelo Bielsa and now Gary O’Neil a caretaker who did a good job as a caretaker but who never should have been appointed full-time but somehow got the job and let’s contrast that preseason status with where we are now.
Off-field investment
What we hoped for in the training complex and much more has been promised in a big way. This could change the whole outlook and future of the club, even post-Foley, if it comes through. If Bill delivers on his promises then this is a long-term reason to cheer to the rafters.
Squad investment
(Relative to our size) Big funds are supposed to be in place for this window and the next. I did expect us to move early after all the tubthumping but there’s still time. (Relatively) Big names have been linked but is it all talk? Time will tell. As opposed to the start of the season I genuinely don’t know where we stand yet. I’m still hopeful though.
Relegation
Bill’s declaration that we wouldn’t get relegated was a bit of a clanger. I understand he sees himself as a winner in life, but he’s new to football and it didn’t come across as someone that understood the game. We’ve also thrown away the unexpectedly good position we found ourselves in before the break. Football is often about momentum, and we need something to shift that. I’ve been clear my preference is a new man in charge, but we might have to rely on new signings doing the job.
Bill’s big talk has changed the reference point for supporters. If he’d come in and said ‘We’re going to invest in the club on and off the pitch as part of a multi-year project to build them up. Short-term disappointments won’t stop us from succeeding”, everyone would have known we hope to avoid relegation but if it happens it won’t stop us. However, he’s now raised the expectation that he and we are going to get it right immediately. Before the season started we were happy to accept the relegation. Now? I don’t know what it would mean. Will the investment group walk away? Will they change their focus to another club in the network? Who knows.
Playing style
We no longer have one. The Parker system has been abandoned, which is fine as a new manager will have new ideas, but it hasn’t been replaced. GON is a defence-first manager who, after the dead cat bounce, is no longer able to organise a defence. Going forward, I genuinely can’t recall having ever seen a less potent-looking AFCB team, and that isn’t down to personnel. We have no identity.
Overall
All in all, the mid-season summary is one word: confusion.
We’ve gone from pre-season knowing what we were, being reasonably accepting of it in return for the trade off and having a clear approach to trying to get points to looking chaotic on and off the pitch.
I’ve no idea if we’ll spend big in the next two weeks. Rumours are we will, but even if we do have the money do we have the pull to get in the players that will make a difference? I’ve no idea if the manager will still be in place in two weeks (he shouldn’t be), or who will replace him. I’ve no idea if Foley is the real deal or is going to be another US takeover disaster similar to what we’ve seen at other clubs. I’ve no idea what it is we’re trying to do on the pitch. I don’t see the plan, beyond trying to keep it a 0-0 and hope for a lucky bounce of the ball on a sporadic foray forward where we’re outnumbered.
Everything we thought we knew pre-season has been blown up and none of it is yet put back together. It’s a mess and not an Eton Mess-style delicious one. A plain and simple hotchpotch of poor decisions and poor management at multiple levels, from owner to player, leaving us looking like a basket case of a club.
The Positives
All of the above is true, and yet we somehow hover above the relegation zone after 19 games and sit on 16 points. If we somehow fluke our way to ending the season in 17th and it will finish a qualified success.
In 2017 after 19 games, we had 16 points and sat in the relegation zone. We turned that season around. In 2019 we had 20 points at this stage and went down. The season finale isn’t written yet and the league down the bottom looks unpredictable. We aren’t the only club in a mess and so we could somehow escape. If we do, big changes are needed in the summer to ensure we don’t end up stinking up the division near the relegation zone for several seasons before going down, like Sunderland of yesteryear.
So there is an opportunity if we have the mettle to grasp it. If GON stays at the helm, he needs to turn it around soon. Instil a team ethic that is missing and find some attacking creativity from somewhere. If he is to depart, we need an intelligent choice appointed fast. No excuses about needing time to find the right man, we had months scouring the manager market already so should know all the options available.
The Future
I think Donald Rumsfeld put this best:
“Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. ”
I’ll remain sceptical about Foley until I see actual action. I’ll remain sceptical about GON until I see some actual on-pitch behaviour that looks like it was well-coached. I’ll remain sceptical about our season hopes until I see something that makes me think we can turn this mess around.
The future is… unknown.
Your say…
ANWardy wrote…
Infrastructure:
The training ground and other ideas and plans are still recovering from relegation and then Covid applying the coup de grâce. Think Max really saved the club by putting money in. I’d really like to see this progress, finish the training ground then look at the stadium please.
Team:
Ignoring the managers the squad looked like they hoped Tavernier would provide work ethic and creativity as well as a replacement for Anthony if he doesn’t stay, with Christie providing similar on the other side. Add in the solid midfield of Lerma and Cook with Billing providing creativity. Solanke adds more incredible work ethic up top in theory you have a hard-working team more than capable of pressing with a five-man midfield means you shouldn’t get overrun. Anthony, Dembele and Lowe for extra spark and Moore for when they’re playing as a threat up top.
I think this has almost worked, I’ve been disappointed with Christie, but there’s been times when we’ve attacked well and scored some decent goals. I think more of Dembele and Anthony especially when we have Moore playing is needed for the crosses and creating of chances.
We’ve really fallen down with the defence, we’ve conceded a metric ton from set plays and also conceded a lot of pens.
Because the defences is leaky we’ve either sat too deep or had too big a gap between the midfield and the strikers and we end up under siege.
Like when we were first promoted we didn’t go mad in the summer and then when in Jan we had a chance to stay up we went and got the players to help do it, I think we need the same again.
But considering what Parker did to the club we’re not doing too badly overall and if we get Jan right we have a good chance of staying up. – To join the conversation, click here.
