How does everybody feel about AFC Bournemouth this season?

[BR2]

The open-top bus has been booked as Bournemouth have now won 4 games in the Premier Legue.
Eddie Howe for a New Year's knighthood?
Being such a Tory stronghold where Labour supporters even wear blue I am surprised that Dave "I jump on any bandwagon" Cameron hasn't been down on the beach for a photo call.

Over the years I have lived in Oxford, Southampton and Bournemouth as well as growing up in Royal Reading but even though Bournemouth is now my longest stay my feelings about the club haven't mellowed (It might have something to do with my son being arrested at a Bournemouth v Reading game and me having to take the matter up with the Chief Constable with a fairly strong case where plod said they were to arrest and charge a man in a green shirt about 5ft 9 in. tall whereas on the day 6ft 1 in. Ian was wearing a white shirt-the Chief Constabe saw sense even if local plod found it difficult to understand why Ian was at the game when at the time he was living in Southampton and had a daughter called Chelsea!!)

I'm not suggesting Sanguine that Eddie hasn't done a good job but, by his own admission, it's just a bit early to talk of an England job when it was a bit early to talk of it for Garry Monk a few weeks ago-what then happened to him?

Apart from making a decent living in the area for which I am most grateful I am forever thankful to Bounemouth for letting us have Jimmy Quinn-and how have we paid them back?
By letting them have (for the sake of any pedants I know he was free to leave) a very shaky Adam Federici who for some reason now wants to punch every ball that comes into the box rather than catch it.

I still think that odds of 11/4 for relegation are decent but might change my mind if they get something at West Brom then against Palace, Arsenal and Leicester, all of which I expect to put up more of a fight than spineless Chelsea and Man Utd.

[BR2]

In reply to Sanguine you conveniently forget that Callum Wilson and Matt Ritchie's goals had a massive impact on their promotion success, both bought by Russian money.
Mings, Tomlin,Gradel, Murray, Surman and King have cost about £25 million between them plus a few signing-on fees for 2 dodgy keepers so the Russian money has had an impact in building the squad even if all of them are not starters.
You rightly point out about the defence but this is the same defence with the worst record in the league but still capable of keeping out low-scoring sides such as Chelsea and Man Utd but have been hammered by both Spurs and Man City (5 on each occasion) as well as conceding 3 against Norwich.

[Vision]

It's a testament to dodgy Russian money too isn't it?

On the contrary, of Bournemouth's starting XI against United at the weekend, six played for the club in League One (including the entire back four - and captain Tommy Elphick, a six-year stalwart, didn't play), and only one (Josh King) didn't play for the club last season.

Whilst that's fair enough, they ran at a loss of over 10m in 13/14 season and you can bet that will be higher in 14/15 when they got promoted.

It's difficult to deny that the Russian money hasn't been hugely influential in their rise even if they've taken a fair few players along with them all the way.

[BR2]

As an aside,not just for us RFC fans with our Russian experience, but also generally, Russian money is somehow perceived to be dirtier than say American, Thai or Arab money.
At Bournemouth the Russian owner and his mates get legless on match days but in fairness appear to pay for their drinks even if in a Harry Enfield "loads-a-money" way as some £100 per bottle drinks appear late on-presumably though this happens in most boardrooms apart from where Arab owners are involved when presumably virgins are laid on (in both senses) rathe than drink.

[Sanguine]

It's a testament to dodgy Russian money too isn't it?

On the contrary, of Bournemouth's starting XI against United at the weekend, six played for the club in League One (including the entire back four - and captain Tommy Elphick, a six-year stalwart, didn't play), and only one (Josh King) didn't play for the club last season.

Whilst that's fair enough, they ran at a loss of over 10m in 13/14 season and you can bet that will be higher in 14/15 when they got promoted.

It's difficult to deny that the Russian money hasn't been hugely influential in their rise even if they've taken a fair few players along with them all the way.

It's sour grapes. Yeah, absolutely, I'm not really engaging with the discussion because it's come from a poster who admits he has a bit of an axe to grind with the club, and who supports a team currently propped up by Thai money, after Russian money failed. Fact is, in modern football terms, Bournemouth have spent very little, and to have more the half a Premier League side being a legacy of a League One promotion team must be unprecedented. Well done Eddie.

[Silver Fox]

I wouldn't even say it's unprecedented on the south coast

[Vision]

On the contrary, of Bournemouth's starting XI against United at the weekend, six played for the club in League One (including the entire back four - and captain Tommy Elphick, a six-year stalwart, didn't play), and only one (Josh King) didn't play for the club last season.

Whilst that's fair enough, they ran at a loss of over 10m in 13/14 season and you can bet that will be higher in 14/15 when they got promoted.

It's difficult to deny that the Russian money hasn't been hugely influential in their rise even if they've taken a fair few players along with them all the way.

It's sour grapes. Yeah, absolutely, I'm not really engaging with the discussion because it's come from a poster who admits he has a bit of an axe to grind with the club, and who supports a team currently propped up by Thai money, after Russian money failed. Fact is, in modern football terms, Bournemouth have spent very little, and to have more the half a Premier League side being a legacy of a League One promotion team must be unprecedented. Well done Eddie.

Think Southampton might dispute that one . Wonder what happened to that manager

[Sanguine]

My bad memory - I thought Southampton had overhauled their side in the Championship prior to their second promotion.

[From Despair To Where?]

To be honest, I can think of one team who got promoted to the Premiership with a third of the first team recruited whilst in League 1, the rest of the squad had with almost no Premiership experience, who's big summer signing was a flakey winger from the Championship and the whole squad cost about two thirds of Tyrone Mings and they spent almost all of the season in the top half of the table.

[Vision]

Well quite but that isn't the same as Sanguine suggested was unprecedented about Bournemouth.

Tbf there's an argument that says that Harper, Shorey, Murty and at a push Hahnemann all playing for us in the 3rd tier and the Premiership is also unprecedented given it took us 4 attempts to get from Championship to Premiership.

Edit. Thinking about it Swansea, Blackpool and Burnley might fall into roughly the same category as us.

[Sanguine]

Yeah, my post, which is itself starting to look pretty flakey anyway, was more about Bournemouth getting promoted with and retaining the nucleus of the side that achieved promotion from League One. The whole defence, a couple of midfielders, plus captain Elphick, and Pugh who is generally a sub these days, and to an extent the Bournemouth you can see play now is the same Bournemouth that achieved those promotions, which is a bit different to the others cited.

[Victor Meldrew]

So, having spent nearly £30 million in the summer they now sign Afobe for £10 million plus Grabban for £7 million and Iturbe will cost around £12 million if they buy at the end of the loan deal so that's not far off £60 million this season.
I think they may recoup some of that by selling the over-rated Ritchie who hasn't lived up to the hype this season.

All of this is way above what various sides did overspending to stay in the Premier League, Blackburn, QPR ,Bolton et al but I suppose the TV money is so much higher now making the gamble less.

[Sutekh]

So, having spent nearly £30 million in the summer they now sign Afobe for £10 million plus Grabban for £7 million and Iturbe will cost around £12 million if they buy at the end of the loan deal so that's not far off £60 million this season.
I think they may recoup some of that by selling the over-rated Ritchie who hasn't lived up to the hype this season.

All of this is way above what various sides did overspending to stay in the Premier League, Blackburn, QPR ,Bolton et al but I suppose the TV money is so much higher now making the gamble less.

Trouble beckons if they don't stay up.....

[LWJ]

Surely FFP comes into it with Bournemouth seeing as they can't get a crowd over 12k?

[Ian Royal]

Surely FFP comes into it with Bournemouth seeing as they can't get a crowd over 12k?

Isn't the only FFP in the PL about competing in Europe... so I don't see why Bournemouth would worry.

[Victor Meldrew]

Why do promoted clubs not buy defenders?
Out of their £60 million spend so far Bournemouth have spent over £50 million on attacking players.
When will these managers ever learn?

[From Despair To Where?]

So, having spent nearly £30 million in the summer they now sign Afobe for £10 million plus Grabban for £7 million and Iturbe will cost around £12 million if they buy at the end of the loan deal so that's not far off £60 million this season.
I think they may recoup some of that by selling the over-rated Ritchie who hasn't lived up to the hype this season.

All of this is way above what various sides did overspending to stay in the Premier League, Blackburn, QPR ,Bolton et al but I suppose the TV money is so much higher now making the gamble less.

Trouble beckons if they don't stay up.....

As I said on another thread, it's Bolton MkII in the making. Sustainable if you stay on the gravy train but if you fall off, you're at the whim of the health and/or boredom threshold of the owner.

[Mr Optimist]

Why do promoted clubs not buy defenders?
Out of their £60 million spend so far Bournemouth have spent over £50 million on attacking players.
When will these managers ever learn?

Teams that have no trouble scoring seem to stay up whereas teams that keep them out but don't score draw too many matches and go down. I think the idea is to out score the opposition which I can see. Went a bit wrong last night though lol!

[Winston Smith]

just another club spaffing millions upon millions while struggling at the bottom of the PL

[RoyalJames101]

All the money spent made a big difference last night..

On a side note, did anyone see Payet's free kick?!