AFC Bournemouth are about to begin their fifth consecutive campaign in the top flight of English football.
Ten years ago the Cherries were starting the season in the fourth tier of English football having avoided relegation and probably extinction from the Football League following a seventeen point penalty.
That campaign AFC Bournemouth were still operating under a transfer embargo, but would still go on to win promotion from League Two.
Promotions in 2013 and 2015 saw the Cherries complete their rise through all four divisions and into the Premier League for the first time in their history.
Continuing that assent, particularly at that pace is an impossible task, but attempting to establish the football club as a Premier League club and improving season upon season is the current task for the management and players.
The 2018/19 campaign saw the side finish in 14th place, somewhat short of the highest placed finish of 9th in 2017.
With 20 points gained from the opening 10 fixtures, the end of the season proved a disappointment for AFC Bournemouth.
However, AFC Bournemouth had gone into the final game of the season knowing that a victory would have been enough to set a new club points record in the Premier League.
This season has also seen an AFC Bournemouth player establish themselves as a full international with England for the first time, with Callum Wilson part of Gareth Southgate’s first team squad for the recent UEFA Nations League finals, so progression is continuing.
Steve Cook told the Daily Echo…
“To finish 14th was really disappointing.
“On the face of it with all the injuries we had, all the disruption, we can learn from it, we can take the positives from it.
“The inconsistencies from individuals and the team needs to be addressed and we need to be better but again we are a Premier League team next season and that is the main thing.
“I still think we have a lot of potential and we can really improve next season but we have a lot to sort out.”
Your say…
RobTrent wrote…
The club are doing what they can to improve on and off the field. The ambition is to improve the points tally each season. It hasn’t always happened but I don’t see that as not thinking like a Premier League club. We’ve had a steady if unspectacular four seasons in the Premier League. But the successes are going to be incremental as we get higher.
Off the field, things may have stalled, but I’d bet things are a lot more complicated in terms of trying to find investors than just citing a lack of ambition. – Join the conversation, click here.
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