Are too many changes dangerous for AFCB?

The rate of turnover at AFCB looks set to accelerate. While Jason Tindall has told SkySports that if valuations for Bournemouth players are met the club won't stand in players way if they want to leave, it could be a bit of a rush for the door if players continue to see offers come in. We could be looking at a very different team t the one that won at Everton on the last game in the Premier League.

JT won't stop players who want to find the exit door.

While a clear out can be a good thing, it might be that too many changes could be disrupted. With Eddie Howe going it is the perfect time to reshape the club, but JT will have to have a long list of players to go and get if we see further sales which look on the cards.

Advertisement

Eddie Had a Dream eBook version -£7.99!

Although Callum Wilson and David Brooks can't keep their names out of the headlines at the moment, the whispers about Josh King and Lloyd Kelly have started to subside. It may be that they resurface for King and Kelly, but it will be important I believe for JT to hold on to some of the bigger names. 

Advertisement

Coastal Garden Buildings

I say this as by changing the whole team the club will find it loses its identity for a bit. It is fine that some changes have to be made, but a total regeneration can be a dangerous move as we saw when Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks tried to rebuild after the Lee Bradbury era. Funnily many of the players who were unsuccessful under Groves won promotion with Eddie Howe. Bournemouth need to buy well and get results now though and that is not going to be an easy task.

Advertisement

Eddie Had a Dream -now just 9.99!

The level that AFCB are now at still requires very good professionals. It is clear that JT doesn't believe that the older players are the ones that are best to take on this challenge, having released Boruc, Francis and Surman. It is a new time though and as fans we have to accept that it is unlikely to be a smooth transition and they'll need a bit of luck to get things right straight away.

In other news, AFCB announce a pre-season West Ham friendly at the London Stadium on 5 September behind closed doors. The Daily Mail also claims AFCB have dropped the idea of making a legal case against Hawk-Eye for a technology failure to notify a goal in the match between Sheffield Utd and Aston Villa which would have seen Villa relegated rather than Bournemouth. 

Previous post on Cherry Chimes - A high price-tag to be set for AFCB winger

Eddie Had A Dream - 'We want Grovsey out!'

We are back in 2012 when Eddie Howe was up in Burnley trying to get his young team to turn around their form and AFC Bournemouth were in the clutches of real trouble with Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks in charge and Eddie Mitchell deciding to face the music (or at least some angry AFC Bournemouth fans). Here is an excerpt from 'Eddie Had A Dream'.

Eddie had A Dream 

Chapter 10. The Homecoming 2012-13
With Bournemouth nine games into the new season and defeat at home to Walsall, Eddie Mitchell bravely or perhaps foolishly stepped out in front of the home fans again. This time it was in front of the reception at Dean Court, to understand their frustrations and to plead with them that he wanted the same as them – a successful side. He was asked by one fan, after a home defeat, what he made of the current situation? And what was he going to do about it? While admitting that the situation was awful, in slightly more colourful language, Mitchell said: ‘It’s all very well saying change it, change it but we keep changing, changing it and we’ve got to find a way of winning.’

Eddie Mitchell did not have a microphone and so when he was asked to speak up, he took his time to try and hear the questions and to be heard. But this was an unhappy Dean Court and Mitchell was probably wondering what he could do to placate the fans. ‘We’re all on the same side.’ said Mitchell. ‘I could have employed Glenn Hoddle but we’d still be in the same situation. You know it’s football. The balls round. We try our best.’

The chorus of, ‘We want Grovesey out!’ grew louder and louder before fans started to sing ‘Oh Eddie Howe!, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie Howe!’

Advertisement

Coastal Garden Buildings

The fans had given their view on matters, however unlikely the possibility of getting their favourite son back to Dean Court. ‘Sort it out!’ was one shout. Eddie Mitchell then got more animated. ‘Okay, sort it out, he says. I sack Groves tomorrow, yeah. I sack him, it costs the club a lot of money, but I sack him tomorrow. And we get, I don’t know Glenn Hoddle, Eddie Howe and we carry on as we are. What do we do sack him?’ said Eddie Mitchell.

It may not have been a ringing endorsement for Glenn Hoddle from Eddie Mitchell, but the crowd would have accepted anyone other than Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks. It just wasn’t working and Mitchell knew it as well as those baying for blood. It was a noise that was ever more demanding of change. The end of the saga came on 3 October 2012.

Paperback

To order your copy of 'Eddie Had A Dream', please go to the Amazon website and make sure you secure your paperback copy at £13.49 before the Christmas rush, just click on this link or type in Eddie Had A Dream, in the search bar on Amazon/Kindle.

I am giving 15% of my earnings to Julia's House Children's Hospice. Eddie Had A Dream has also been featured on Up the Clarets this week.

ebook

To order your £9.99 ebook copy of Eddie Had A Dream - click on this link

Here is a video taster of what was to come a historic win over Bolton Wanderers to take AFC Bournemouth to the Premier League! Reading from  Eddie Had A Dream

Fan momentum grows for Joe Roach return

AFCB fans saw the door open for someone to replace Chris Hargreaves at the club this week and with Shaun Brooks and Paul Groves also leaving there is a ground swell of opinion for the return of Joe Roach. In the last few days the Twitter trending for Roach to come back has been strong and the talent spotting experience and teaching ability of the master trainer is something that Eddie Howe will know all about and hopefully will not ignore.

Having overseen the development of players like Sam Vokes and Danny Ing that are doing so well in the Championship at Burnley, as well as Josh McQuoid and Brett Pitman at AFCB and many others, it is easy to see why Joe is so much in demand by the fans. 

This week the Echo reported that Joe Roach was among those being considered for a position at the club and it will be excellent if he does decide that he has unfinished business at AFCB. Joe resigned his position in June 2011, when Eddie Mitchell was chairman, having had more than a decade at the club. I only hope that there is no remaining issues between Joe and AFCB. Hopefully Eddie Howe can speak with Joe and get him on board, because this would be a very popular decision and I believe it would give the structure of the club much firmer foundations going forward with the youth squads playing the attractive football that AFCB supporters have known and become accustomed to.

It is also rumoured that Carl Fletcher could make a return to AFCB, having left Conference side Barnet FC, so it is hoped that there is some good news along these lines next week.

We are having some technical issues with the Free Bet Negotiator advert at the moment and so until this is rectified you can still visit the site via this link.(You need to be 18+). 

Backroom staff changes at AFCB

As we know, Chris Hargreaves left AFCB today to take up his position as manager at Torquay and it subsequently followed that Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks had resigned from their positions, according to the Bournemouth Echo. That leaves quite a hole in the backroom training staff at AFCB and it will be interesting to see if Eddie Howe looks to bring some more staff in quickly. I wonder of a few are sitting uneasy at Burnley, as Eddie and Jason left a lot of staff there when they returned to the south coast.

Chris Hargreaves watches Wes Thomas shooting before Ipswich match.

Andrew Surman is put through his paces by Chris Hargreaves.

Many fans have already been wondering if Steve Fletcher will change his role at the club. Stephen Purches could also be asked to do some extra duties.

Will such matters affect the players? Well I hope not, although some familiar faces no longer being around will no doubt be missed. Yet, AFCB is a club that seems to transform and evolve constantly and this season is no different.

What an opportunity for a young coach though who would get the opportunity to work with the youth team or the first team at a Championship club. Surely there will be no shortage of applicants, but it is another administerial job to do when perhaps Howe at least will be keen to be focusing on player matters, which is busy enough with the transfer window now open. At least the opportunity should allow Eddie to bring in the people he wants.

Good luck to all those who have left the club, particularly good luck to Chris who I hope does well at Torquay. I already see a possible pre-season friendly being arranged.

A calmer Eddie Mitchell in the Championship?

While our Chairman is perhaps known as one of the most colourful characters when he was happy to speak out at fans on the pitch and discuss his views openly in front of the cameras in League One, the club is speaking with more of a united voice these days.

In past seasons we have been entertained with Eddie's verbal expressions of passion for the club and his anger at those who did not share his views. Of late, Mr Mitchell has bot been so vocal except when the end was nigh for Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks. Since then it has been mainly smiles from our larger than life chairman. 

To be fair he has had no reason complain about much that has been happening over the last six months. He has seen his decision (or was it his wife's?) to bring back Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall come off exceptionally well, the team has performed above most peoples' expectations and he still has more building projects under way.

So why do I think Eddie Mitchell may choose his words more carefully in the Championship? Well, I feel the club has been striving for better communication with its fans for a while now and it is starting to show. The recent question about which kit to wear in the final home game was quickly resolved when the fans asked for it to stay the red and black home kit rather than the new all black third kit. Better communication with the fans and the media in general is a real positive for AFCB.

That's not to say that controversy is easy to avoid. Just look at the problems clubs like Blackburn Rovers have had with the Venky family. Bolton have had a dressing down over their sponsorship deal and Cardiff's Malaysian tie-up through its owner has proved particularly troublesome. The need for such big teams to achieve Premiership football seems to drive them to some crazy decisions. The pressure in the Championship will be on for Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Blackburn, Leeds, Bolton and Birmingham. For AFCB it is a chance to enjoy our newly won position and hopefully play with the shackles off unlike many other sides.

Undoubtedly, the spotlight will really be on our club though as a newcomer to the Championship, but at the end of the day the club is in it together. I expect AFCB to concentrate on getting the important things right, on and off the pitch. Mr Mitchell and the club have done a pretty good job in this respect in the last few months. 

10 things Cherry Chimes wishes had been different this season

AFC Bournemouth has had a fantastic season but there are just a few things that would have been nice to change. Can you guess any of Cherry Chimes top 10 changes that we would have liked to have happen?

10. I wish we could have mastered the penalty shot out against Oxford in the Capital One Cup, I so hate going out of cups in the first round.

9. Southampton, can't they be docked 10 points for unfairly sacking Nigel Adkins and have to play us in the Championship next season?

8. I wish one of those who came on loan had realised that coming to AFCB was not a holiday resort (I'll let you guess the player). Then again perhaps he was just not very good.

7. Eunan O'Kane decides it is not wise to collect the ball with his hands in the penalty area when playing Walsall.

6. Tommy Elphick manages to evade that tackle from MK Don's Ryan Lowe. 

5. Paulo Di Canio could have decided to leave Swindon Town earlier in the season so that they did not inflict that 4:0 drubbing on AFCB!

4. Super Fletch finds he can shed years and turns up at pre-season training looking like a 21 year old and comes out of retirement.

3. Wigan were not awarded a penalty in the first leg of our third round FA Cup tie and Eunan O'Kane's goal won the tie. AFCB then went on to Wembley, where Eddie Howe's team won the club's best ever trophy, the fans had a great day out and the Cherries go into Europe for next season. 

2. Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks had decided that diamonds are best worn on a girl's finger, so that AFCB would have had a better start in League One.

1. Brentford's O'Connor tells Marcello Trotta to take a long walk off a short cliff and grabs the ball from him to score in the 95th minute against Doncaster Rovers to promote Brentford and send 2000+ fans at Prenton Park delirious as AFCB fans celebrate being League One champions!

Have you any further suggestions that are printable?