Bournemouth’s Approach to Premier League Promotion

There are times when clubs are promoting into the Premier League and seem intent on banking as much money as possible, building a team that isn’t suited for the Premier League but after relegation would be good enough to secure promotion back to the top flight for a second stint.

We’ve seen this from Norwich among others in recent years, and last season it appeared that Bournemouth were taking that approach.

The Impact of New Ownership

After securing promotion under Scott Parker spent £26mil and did nowhere near enough to give themselves a real chance at survival. The reason became clear a few months later when the club was sold to Bill Foley.

Foley wasn’t going to allow his team to drop down from the top flight without throwing the kitchen sink at survival. With Gary O’Neil having overseen somewhat of a turnaround in fortune, the new American owner signed off on a total commitment of almost £80mil including the mandatory purchase option on Hamed Traore should they stay in the division.

New Signings and Their Impact

Traore joined fellow loanee Mathias Vina, who has surprisingly not been retained, along with Dango Ouattara, Antoine Semenyo, and Illya Zabarnyi in the fight against relegation. When Bournemouth officially secured survival there was mass praise for O’Neil, but not nearly enough for the owner who backed him heavily in January.

With attention now turned to the season ahead, further big brave moves have been made planned and some already executed.

It was assumed that O’Neil would be retained after securing promotion but Foley and his team had different ideas. The decision to hire Andoni Iraola, one of the most highly sought-after young managers in Europe, is to be applauded. O’Neil did a fine job, but Iraola is a higher calibre of manager and one who Bournemouth fans should be excited about.

Continued Transfers and Future Plans

The transfers have continued, with Justin Kluivert and Romain Faivre joining from Roma and Lyon respectfully. Faivre will spend next season at Lorient who are also owned by Foley, but Kluivert will give Iraola another good option on the wing. And Bournemouth aren’t finished.

Reports suggest that they are very close to securing the signing of Milos Kerkez from AZ Alkmaar, while they have also been linked with Sacha Boey of Galatasaray.

Building an Exciting Team

Piece by piece Bournemouth are building an exciting team, and while they’re still some ways from the finished article it is an exciting time for the fanbase. Foley is incredibly ambitious, just look at his NHL team the Vegas Golden Knights for evidence of that. He’s driven to win and wants the best people around him on the journey. Hiring Iraola is further evidence of that and if he continues to spend money then we could be entering what might be a very successful era for the South Coast club.