Before Birmingham’s match against Bournemouth on Saturday, I
interviewed opposition fan Peter Bell. Peter writes a blog on Bournemouth
called Cherry Chimes (link at the
bottom), and you can follow him on Twitter @PeterBell19. Here, he discusses the
journey the club has been on in the last few years, his thoughts on
Bournemouth’s manager, Eddie Howe, and backs his side to nick a narrow win…
You’re eleventh in
the table and seventeen points clear of the drop. Could your first season in
the Championship have gone much better?
At the start
of the season I predicted a finish of 18th and half way through,
having seen the other teams I thought 12th was possible with a good
wind, so to see the Cherries sitting in 11th and still a good month
or more of games to go is absolutely fantastic. The club’s best ever finish was
12th in the 1988-89 season, under Harry Redknapp. That will be the
next target and who knows perhaps a record points total in the Championship. I
think the play-offs might be out of reach but it was not about that this season
– consolidation is what the club wanted and they have more than achieved that.
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| Howe - one of the best young English coaches? |
From what I can see,
Eddie Howe has got you playing some good, possession football. If we want to
see our country produce better technical players, do we need more coaches like
him?
I had a joke with my mates this week saying I’ll shoot the
next person who says Eddie Howe should be an England manager one day. It’s not
that I don’t believe his is good enough or that he has the talent to get there
but I just want to keep him all to ourselves at AFC Bournemouth. When anyone
mentions Eddie being linked with any move away from the club, I keep saying
shush! We have lost him once and we don’t want to lose him again. I think
Everton is one club he would consider in the future if they made an approach as
it is the club he supported in his youth, but Eddie has just signed a two-year
extension to his contract at Bournemouth and we are overjoyed to keep him for
as long as he wants to stay.
Brendan Rogers gave an eloquent speech after the FA Cup
Third Round tie we had with Liverpool where he pointed out that playing from
the back with possession football was the way England players will progress. He
also said that Eddie Howe is one of the coaches that players will learn a great
deal from in the way he sets up his team to play, being brave on the ball and
using movement and quickness to create space and opportunities. It is not just
the first team that plays that way at AFC Bournemouth it is all the teams, from
Development, to Youth and Junior squads.
Only a few years ago,
your club went into administration and could have dropped out of the Football
League. Talk us through the journey the club has been on since then…
It has been a remarkable experience
to be a fan that has seen how close the club was to exiting the football league
and yet, in just a few years, has mounted a strong challenge in the
Championship this season, following two promotions. In 2008-9 we started with a
-17 point deficit along with Rotherham and Luton on -30 points. Bournemouth
employed the league’s youngest manager from its own coaching squad and then saw
Steve Fletcher score his 100th goal with the winner against Grimsby
to keep us up.
Move on a year and the team
spirit that had been built up by Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall pushed the team
to promotion in 2009-10 to League One. While Eddie and Jason left during the
2010-11 season, Bournemouth still reached the play-offs under Lee Bradbury and
Steve Fletcher. But then most of the team were sold to balance the books and
while the following season was disappointing and Paul Groves could not
resurrect the good times, it was only in October 2012 when Eddie and Jason
returned and things took off again. The club went from the bottom three to
finish second in League One.
Credit should also go to Eddie
Mitchell our former chairman who found new Russian investors to secure the
financial future of the club and totally changed the landscape around the
ground to make it Championship quality. Now that Bournemouth are in the
Championship the ambition is still growing, because Premiership football is
something that the club and fans feel can be achieved with this squad of
players under Eddie Howe.
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| Smash-and-grab job for Blues at Dean Court |
What did you make of the game against Birmingham back in December – a
2-0 win for Blues?
I probably was not too
complementary about Birmingham’s win as I thought the game really showed the
naivety of Bournemouth at the Championship level at that time. The Blues showed us that you can defend as a
team and just use your quality strikers to win the game as long as they can
finish. It was a sucker punch job, but we’ve learned from that. It has taken
until February to really get a few clean sheets but the team is defending much
better now.
On my away day there, Bournemouth didn’t strike me as a town that
especially welcomes football culture. Has it been difficult for the club to
attract fans?
The Saints down the road has a
bigger population to pull from but with Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch
being one of the country’s conurbations with good wealth creation and more
young people now coming for the University and career opportunities in the
south there are signs that things are changing. AFC Bournemouth attracted six
thousand season ticket holders for the 2013-24 season and I believe the Junior
Cherry membership has grown significantly from 303 in 2009 to 1400 in 2013. We
average about 10,000 supporters for every home game now and will be looking to
build that further next season.
You spent £2 million
this summer on South African striker Tokelo Rantie. With two goals so far, the consensus
seems to be that the club has been ripped off a bit. Would you agree?
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| Tokelo Rantie - worth the fee? |
It is too early to say how good Tokelo Rantie is going to
be. Very few players are an instant success when they change countries and
leagues. He is a young international striker who plays for South Africa and is
still learning his trade. Eddie Howe
will work with him over the summer. It’s three goals I think, even if one was a
bit disputed but you are right it’s not enough. He has to learn how to make a
bigger frame and hold off challenges better with a good first touch. It’s a much more physical league than in
Sweden where he played for Malmo. We have already seen that he can do the
spectacular as seen in the Burnley away game. If he can start to put away
chances from six yards as well he may yet prove to be a valuable signing within
the next 12 months. And if the media
reports are right, it was nearer to £2.25-2.5 million.
Time for your prediction. I’ve been looking through my record book, and
the last time Birmingham scored a goal against you at St Andrews was in a 1-1
draw back in August 1987. We’ve failed in five attempts since then, and with
your defensive record of late, are we in danger of making it a sixth?
I am writing this before the
Leeds game which will take a bit out of our players. I know Birmingham will
need the points perhaps more than us, but I can see more frustration for Lee
Clark and perhaps another away win coming for our boys 0-1. We will bring good
support.
Thank you for inviting Cherry
Chimes to talk about AFC Bournemouth. Please note that anyone who is interested
can read more about the team’s last promotion season and this season in the
Championship by visiting Http://afcbchimes.blogspot.co.uk
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