A.F.C. Bournemouth/import

AFC Bournemouth are an English football team currently playing in Football League Two. The side plays at the Fitness First Stadium (Dean Court) in Kings Park, Bournemouth, Dorset. The club has existed since 1899. Its nickname is The Cherries. The team traditionally plays in red and black stripes but reverted to predominantly red for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons before announcing a return to the stripes for the 2006-07 season due to fan demand.

The club was originally known as Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, but adopted the AFC Bournemouth name in 1972. At the same time, it adopted the famous red and black striped shirt in imitation of the great Italian side AC Milan.

Due to significant debts the club is often forced to sell key players to raise cash; examples being Matt Holland, Carl Fletcher, Brian Stock, James O'Connor and more recently James Hayter and Sam Vokes.

In February 2008, the club entered voluntary administration and requires some four million pounds to climb out of their latest financial struggle. As per football league rules, the club was penalized 10 competition points upon entering into the voluntary administration. The club has recently announced, it has an acceptable offer on the table and is hopeful of announcing a deal in April 2008 that will bring the voluntary administration to an end, which would also avoid the threatened loss of a further 15 competition points.

At the end of this 07/08 Season, AFC Bournemouth were officially relegated following a 1 - 1 draw with Carlisle United. They finished just 2 points from safety however, and they will start the 08/09 season in the Football League 2.

History
The Cherries rarely hit the headlines but ex long-serving player James Hayter allowed this to happen when he scored the fastest hat-trick in English Football League history during the 2003-04 season. The Cherries were leading 3-0 against Wrexham, thanks to goals from Steven Purches, Warren Cummings and Warren Feeney, when Hayter was brought onto the field as a substitute. With 86 minutes gone, Hayter managed to net three goals in the space of 2 minutes 20 seconds, making the final score 6-0 to AFC Bournemouth.

The south coast club became the first football club to scored 5 goals at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, beating Lincoln City 5-2 in the 2002-03 Division 3 Play-off final (the Slovakian national side equalled this feat in 2006 against Wales). However, they remain the only team to have scored five goals in a Football League play-off final. They are also famous for defeating holders Manchester United in the FA Cup in January 1984, while they were managed by Harry Redknapp.

Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp is the most successful manager ever to take charge of Bournemouth. Apart from the 1984 F.A. Cup shock win over Manchester United, he took them into the second tier of the English league for the first time in their history as Third Division champions in 1987. They stayed there for three years, and he remained at the helm for two years after their relegation in 1990, before leaving for West Ham United. His son Jamie Redknapp made his debut for Bournemouth while only 16, and went on to play for Liverpool and England.

Sean O'Driscoll
Bournemouth's last manager was Sean O'Driscoll, who was promoted from the coaching staff in place of Mel Machin at the start of the 2000-01 season. In his first season as manager, Bournemouth narrowly missed out on the Division Two playoffs, but were relegated a year later in the new stadium. The board kept faith in O'Driscoll and they were rewarded with promotion via the Division Three playoffs in 2002-03. Bournemouth have remained in the league's third tier ever since, closely missing out on the playoffs for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons, and narrowly beating relegation in the 2005-06 season.

In September 2006, with the team in 8th place in the League, Sean O'Driscoll left to become manager of Doncaster Rovers. By the time the new manager Kevin Bond was appointed the team were struggling but a recovery in the New Year kept the club clear of relegation. Kevin Bond is a former Bournemouth player, and his father managed the Club during perhaps its most memorable era in the early 1970s.

Crowd Trouble
Whilst the fans are usually good mannered and crowd trouble is extremely rare nowadays, Monday 5 May 1990 has gone down in the history of both club and town as a black day. It was the May Day public holiday and the final day of the season. AFC Bournemouth were in the old Second Division and Leeds United had the chance to win the league on goal difference and gain promotion into the First Division (now the Premiership). Many followers of Leeds had already caused trouble in the town during the morning and the atmosphere was tense as Leeds won the match by a single goal. That, combined with the results of other matches, meant that Leeds were promoted while Bournemouth were relegated. The violence and destruction by visitors to Bournemouth continued over the holiday weekend 'causing more than £1million worth of damage and injury to opposing fans and police officers'. The town's Daily Echo newspaper reported that 'spectators, including many young children, had to run to safety as missiles were hurled and riot police waded in to control the crowds'.The matter was raised in Parliament by one of the town's MPs. Many Bournemouth supporters attribute the beginning of the subsequent decline of the club on that fateful day. The club have been on the brink of bankruptcy several times since 1990.

Financially, the Leeds trouble affected the club for more than a decade, as Bournemouth were prevented by local police from staging home games on Bank Holidays (traditionally a popular day for football) until a game against Shrewsbury Town on 21 April 2003. The club often had to move games from Easter Monday, for instance, to the following Tuesday evening, with lower crowds a consequence.

Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic
Their name prior to 1971 was Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, which was notable as the longest in the football league. A lot of older fans refer to the club as Boscombe and the chant "Boscombe, back of the net" can still be heard at matches.

Their red and black kit introduced in 1971 was based on the old AC Milan strip.

They have recently agreed a new shirt sponsorship deal with Focal Point Fires PLC, ending their long association with Seward Cars.

The club also recently sold their stadium but not the surrounding land to property management company Structadene to ease debts. This deal was done on a Sale and Lease back agreement.

Season 2006-07
Peter Phillips stepped down as club chairman on 1 September 2006 after 4 years at the helm. Local entrepreneur Abdul Jaffer was promoted from vice-chairman to temporary chairman until a new permanent one was appointed by the board of directors. Jaffer resigned in February 2007, and in March the shareholders agreed to a takeover by a consortium led by businessman Jeff Mostyn.

Manager Sean O'Driscoll and his assistant Richard O'Kelly left on 9 September 2006 to join Doncaster Rovers. However, this bad news was sweetened with the confirmation of the signing of England 1998 World Cup player Darren Anderton on a pay-as-you-play basis. On his debut versus Scunthorpe United he scored the Bournemouth equaliser with a spectacular 40-yard free kick in a 1-1 draw. He also scored his first hat-trick against Leyton Orient in the 5-0 home victory.

After a 5 week search, former Cherries favourite Kevin Bond was named as O'Driscoll's successor, beating off stiff competition from Phil Brown, Les Ferdinand, and Andy Hessenthaler.

The Cherries made a poor start under management of Kevin Bond, losing their first six games, and drawing two. However, a surprise victory over top of table leaders Nottingham Forest secured Kevin Bond's first victory of the season, with a 2-0 win.

On New Years Day 2007, Bournemouth beat Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 with an amusing goal from Brett Pitman in the 90th minute. As the Brighton goalkeeper Wayne Henderson controlled the ball just to the left of his 6 yard box he took a step back to clear the ball as Pitman chased the ball down. Unfortunately for Henderson, he slipped on the floor, Pitman got the loose ball, took it around a defender and smashed it into the back of the net at the North Stand end. Henderson has since left Brighton.

AFCB secured their League One status for another year in the last home game of the 2006-07 season with a 1-1 draw against Gillingham (28/04/2007).

In May 2007, an inaccurate rumour circulated that Teddy Sheringham was in talks over a one-year contract with the club.

On May 29 James Hayter was sold to Doncaster Rovers for a fee believed to be in the region of £200,000. This left the Cherries squad with just 9 contracted first team players, two of which were goalkeepers.

Season 2007-08
Despite May leaving the club with only 9 first team contracted players, June 19 finally bought some good news for the fans with Brentford striker Jo Kuffour signing for the club after turning down several other offers. Kuffour managed to net 14 goals for Brentford in the 2006-2007 season despite them finishing bottom of the League One table. Also joining the Bond revolution were former Luton Town, Cardiff, and Portsmouth centre defender Russell Perrett and ex-Celtic utility man Paul Telfer. In addition, it was announced 23 July 2007 that non league midfielder Marvin Bartley has signed with the team. The 21 year old came close to signing for MK Dons, but the departure of Martin Allen led to him signing for Bournemouth instead. Garreth O'Connor, who left in 2005, returned as well. Also, in the weeks leading up to the season's start, defenders Ryan Garry (former Arsenal) and Jason Pearce (former Portsmouth) both joined on free transfers. They were both on trial throughout the pre-season period, and played big parts in the Cherries 0-0 draw on the opening day of the season with Nottingham Forest.

In August 2007 Lee Bradbury signed for A.F.C. Bournemouth on a four month loan deal from Southend United. After playing one game for the club the loan was made permanent, and Bradbury signed a contract until the end of the season. With the growing injury crisis, Kevin Bond brought in a number of differently loan signings, including Mark Wilson, keeper Asmir Begovic, Reading reserves James Henry, Jem Karacan, Scott Golbourne and Alex Pearce, also he has brought ex-cherry's school boy Adam Lallana, who left to join Southampton some years ago. However Begovic's loan was cut short, Wilson's one month loan came to an end, as did Garreth O'Connor's, who returned to the Burnley reserve team after an injury hit spell. The loan of Max Gradel was also cut short due to the death of his mother. Max returned in mid-November, and just days after his loan deal expired on 2 January 2008, he came back to the Cherries on loan for the rest of the season. Tough-tackling Neil Young went the opposite way on loan, and joined Weymouth on loan for a month.

Kevin Bond was hopeful that some of his quartet of on-loan Reading players, who returned to the Royals after the game at Brighton on New Year's Day, could return to Dean Court in the future. Bond said "I would take them all back given the opportunity - they've all done very well". However, none of them returned to the Cherries, apart from Jem Karacan, who was playing for Millwall as they lost 2-0 to the Cherries at Dean Court on 29 March 2008.

Also in the January transfer window, the cherries signed experienced Norwegian midfielder Jo Tessem on a free until the end of the season.

On November 6 2007 AFC Bournemouth recorded their highest ever attendance at the Fitness First Stadium when 9,632 supporters watched Bournemouth play Leeds United. 

On February 7 2008, Bournemouth were forced into administration, subsequently having a 10-point deduction, putting them in deep relegation trouble in League One. Bournemouth have debts of around £4million and almost went out of business completely.

The only bid that administrator Gerald Krasner had accepted came from a consortium led by chairman Jeff Mostyn, however in a press conference on 3 April 2008, Mr Krasner said that due to a breach of the agreement between the administrators and the consortium relating to the funding of the consortium and the sale of the club the deal could not go through. Along with this, the administrator also warned that the club may also be closed before the end of the season unless appropriate funding came forward.

In spite of off-the-field issues with the club, Bournemouth achieved a remarkable string of results in the Football League One. Starting with a 2-1 win at home to Tranmere Rovers on March 24, the team also beat Millwall 2-0 (H), Swansea 2-1 (A) with a shock injury time comeback, Bristol Rovers 2-1 (H) and Walsall 3-1 (A). On April 19, this winning streak of five matches left Bournemouth four points away from safety with two games remaining. The winning streak was increased to six matches on April 26 with a vital 1-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra. It is interesting to note that the goalscorer, Sam Vokes, rejected a transfer offer from Crewe in January of the same year. Victory or a draw away at Carlisle on May 3, depending on Cheltenham Town and Gillingham's results, would ensure Bournemouth's survival in the Football League One, and would prove to be one of the most impressive relegation survivals achieved in the club's history, and even in the Football League itself. Harry Redknapp commented that escaping relegation "...would be more than a Great Escape, it would be a miracle". He furthered this by saying that "...if Kevin (Bond) doesn't get manager of the month there's something wrong," paying tribute to his managerial ability to get the winning streak out of the team. Bournemouth managed to achieve a 1-1 draw in the match against Carlisle but, with Cheltenham Town winning at home to Doncaster Rovers 2-1, were relegated to League Two after five successive seasons of Division Two/League One football.

First-team

 * Squad Numbers are for the 2007/2008 season

Management and coaching staff

 * Manager: Kevin Bond
 * Assistant Manager: Rob Newman
 * Head of Youth: Joe Roach


 * First Team Coach/ Reserve Team Manager: Eddie Howe
 * Goalkeeping Coaches: Stuart Murdoch and Robbie Yates
 * Fitness & Conditioning Coach: Mark Burley


 * Physio: Steve Hard
 * Kit Man:
 * Referee's Assistant: Bob Miles

Past managers

 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Vincent Kitcher
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Harry Knighorn
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Leslie Knighton
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Frank Richards
 * Billy Birrell
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bob Crompton
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Charlie Bell
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Harry Kinghorn
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Harry Lowe
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jack Bruton
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Freddie Cox
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 John Bond
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Trevor Hartley
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Tony Nelson
 * John Benson
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Alec Stock
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 David Webb
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Don Megson
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Harry Redknapp
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Tony Pulis
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Mel Machin
 * 🇮🇪 Sean O'Driscoll

Notable former players

 * England
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Russell Beardsmore
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ian Bishop
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿/🇯🇲 Luther Blissett
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jimmy Case
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jermain Defoe (Loan)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Rio Ferdinand (Loan)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Gavin Peacock
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jamie Redknapp
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Liam Ridgewell (Loan)
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Nigel Spackman
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Matty Holmes
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Steve Fletcher
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Alan Whittle
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jason Tindall


 * Nigeria
 * 🇳🇬 Efan Ekoku


 * Northern Ireland
 * George Best (1983)
 * Colin Clarke


 * Republic of Ireland
 * 🇮🇪 Tommy Godwin
 * Matt Holland
 * John O'Shea (Loan)


 * Scotland
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Richard Hughes
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Ted MacDougall


 * Wales
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Carl Fletcher
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Sam Vokes