With an unlikely promotion to the Championship secured, and a reasonable start to the season made, Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth are once again seeing the value of happiness and contentment in sport.
It is rather hard to sympathise with QPR’s Joey Barton when he gets onto his favourite hobby horse and starts bleating on about footballers being treated like pieces of meat. Barton, after all, should know better than most that this is a sport that provides untold riches to players from an increasingly early age and asks only for (at times meagre) talent, four two hour training sessions a week and a couple of football games every seven days in return. It’s the job every man in the country dreams of having, and it pays more in a week than most earn in a year.
At times, Barton makes a good point. Rowan Vine, for instance, was chastised by QPR fans desperate to see his contract torn up when his form and ability disintegrated in the wake of a horrible injury caused in a training ground clash that wasn’t his fault, and was treated poorly by the club’s medical team. Had Vine continued in his pre-leg break form and chosen to move onto another club for more money and better prospects he’d have been booed by the fans on his return, but as soon as he was of no use to the first team everybody wanted to see him released.
And while Barton’s complaints about whether anybody from QPR will be getting in touch with him in 20 years’ time to check if his kids are alright for schooling and he’s ok for medical bills rings rather hollow given the money he’s taken from QPR and the return he’s provided, that concern is valid for players who were wearing the Hoops just a decade ago. Rangers are notoriously poor at looking after their old pros, as 1970s flying winger Dave Thomas has often pointed out before.
Most of this is dismissed — probably rightly — by people who wonder just how bad it can possibly be to earn £65,000 a week to play for Queens Park Rangers. ‘Come and try and feed my family on my wage in my situation and learn a thing or two about stress and real world problems’ a justified response.
But sportsmen, however much they earn, are still human beings and depression, and other illnesses like it, are chemical things which care little for pay packets or career paths. We’ve seen, in the last week, cricketer Jonathan Trott returning home early from The Ashes tour with a "stress related illness” (still not allowed to say depression it seems) just as Marcus Trescothick did before him. We’ve seen diver Tom Daley feel the need to come out and admit to a gay (still not allowed to say bisexual it seems) relationship.
The fact is, sports people — like everybody else — perform at their best when they’re happy. Injuries played a large part in Eddie Howe’s failure as a player at Portsmouth, where he was Harry Redknapp’s first signing for £400,000 in 2002, but there is no doubt that he played his best football at Bournemouth. As a manager, the league’s youngest at the time, he saved them from relegation out of the league despite taking over halfway through the 2008/09 season when they were 17 points adrift. They won promotion a year later despite spending the entire campaign under a transfer embargo.
There was no way a player of Howe’s ability should have spent almost his whole career kicking around the lower leagues with Bournemouth. But when his managerial success brought him a move to Championship side Burnley, another clue as to why he did was provided. Howe, with parachute payments to spend, did nothing of any note at Turf Moor and midway through last season decided to resign and return to League One Bournemouth, where he promptly won an unlikely promotion in half a season.
Howe should be linked with every managerial job that comes up. But for whatever reason — and there’s never been any indication that it’s anything other than simply being where he feels most at home — he is happiest at Bournemouth. The performances he’s produced in the dugout and on the field when he’s been happy during his career have been extraordinary. We’re all only human.
At no notice at all, we welcome Bournemouth fan Gabriella Crouch to LFW to give us the latest on her club….
Assess Bournemouth’s start to the season for us — strong early results, more of a struggle lately, a long winter ahead or is this a blip?
GC: With the jump up in divisions, there was a hint of the unknown of what to expect as we embarked on our first season of Championship football for a while. Following our outstanding rise under Howe last season, who came in when we were struggling towards the bottom of League 1, we were hoping that we would keep that momentum going that saw us promoted, into this season.
In the first month of the season, our results were up and down: our home form was excellent and we recorded wins against Charlton and Wigan at Dean Court; in contrast though our away form was pretty woeful with 11 goals conceded in two defeats at Watford and Huddersfield. That was an eye opener for everyone at the club. After the baptism of fire on the road, we found our feet a little and got a win away at Doncaster and a clean sheet, which showed that we were learning from our early defeats.
That win left us in and around the play off zone which was a fantastic start for us. Since then though we have found results hard to come by. Our home form deserted us a little in September with defeats to Blackpool and Blackburn, but we picked up a narrow win at home to Barnsley and got a good point on the road at Middlesbrough, which kept us ticking along nicely.
In October we had three away trips to some of the so called 'big boys'. We narrowly lost out up at Leeds despite a gutsy performance with ten men, but bounced back in incredible style at home to Millwall winning 5-2, having been 2-0 down after ten minutes. We carried this performance into our trip to Forest and got a well-deserved last minute equaliser that I think really showed that we are good enough to compete in the division. We again narrowly lost out at Leicester but we were by no means shamed by the division's top teams.
Still sitting comfortably in the table we were all delighted with our start to the season, but November would prove to be a pretty fruitless month. It started off with a really poor home defeat to Bolton, but again we showed good resolve to bounce back and get a point at top of the league Burnley the following week. Having been strong at home early on, the home form has really dipped of late and we lost again to Derby and failed to score once again. At the weekend we got a decent draw at home to Brighton but a poor month has seen us drop down the table a little.
After the bright opening to the season I think everyone was confident that we could compete in this division without any problems. The recent poor form has raised a few question marks about survival, but I think we have more than enough to survive this season, which is any team’s aim having just been promoted. A win against Brighton would have really lifted us ahead of a tough week with two away games at QPR and Reading, and what we don't want is for the winless run to go on much longer, because we don't want to be heading into a hectic festive period on the back of a poor run with low morale because before we know it we will be dragged into a dog fight.
However, I don't think the division is going to be as tight as it was last year anyway, the three at the bottom are already being cut adrift and it doesn't look like you are going to need 60 points to survive this year, which can only be good for us. I would like to think this is just a blip, as we have shown we can compete with the best in the division, and it will be a long hard season but I think we have enough to survive comfortably.
What have you made of the standard of the division, given that the Cherries haven’t played at this level for quite some time? Who has impressed you, if anybody?
GC: I think the jump up is quite big from League 1. In League 1 you could get away with not playing your best but still winning, but in this league, if you're not at your best you will be punished. That's the nature of this division, anyone can beat anyone on their day which doesn't happen in a lot of other leagues. Top teams in other leagues can get away with playing poorly against 'lower' teams yet still winning. In this league though if you play well on the day and the other team doesn't you will win - a simple game when you say it like that isn't it? Results like Doncaster's win over QPR, Yeovil's wins over Forest and Watford, and Wednesday's win over Reading are a good example of it. Teams keep the ball far better in this division too, and I think that suits our style better anyway.
Attackers are far more lethal: in League 1 strikers would miss countless opportunities before finding the net, but in the Championship you've got some quality strikers who only need one chance. That goes for us too, our strikers are finding it hard to find the back of the net in this division. Lewis Grabban started like a house on fire but the others have struggled so far in open play, and in this division you don't get many chances so need to be more ruthless. You are up against bigger physical athletes in this division too, and at times we have looked a little lightweight.
I was most impressed by Derby, they were one of the best sides so far. They kept the ball excellently and had some really good creative ball players in the side. The back four was rock solid too, and if they could get a really top striker I think they would be certs for the play offs at least. Forest were decent for a half against us and have a really talented squad but we more than matched them and took a point off them. A lot of teams are much of a muchness in this division and it's all about consistency if you want to achieve success, it's the teams that put little runs together that go up. The rest are pretty much win one lose one and that will keep you in and around play off positions but is unlikely to get you up. Our results have pretty much been like that really, up and down, and to be honest I have been happy with how we have adapted to the division, and if we keep going like we have been so far then that will see us through, as long as we don't let this winless run go on too much longer.
Where is the team strong and where is it weak? Who are the key players, and who should QPR be targeting?
GC: It's quite hard to say at the moment with the run we are on, but I would say our midfield is the strongest area of the side. We have some really good creative attacking wingers that cause problems to defences. Matt Ritchie has just come back from injury and has breathed some life into the side, he is very good from set pieces and is always looking to get on the ball.
We also have two really tricky wingers in Marc Pugh and Ryan Fraser. Both have different styles: Pugh is full of step overs and jinking runs which leave full backs not knowing which way to turn, whilst Fraser is more your traditional kind of winger who has a lot of pace and just runs directly at defenders and drawing them into fouls. In the middle of the park I would say the key man is Harry Arter. He is an old fashioned box to box midfielder full of energy. He will chase down everything and really gets stuck in and does his defensive duties excellently, but going forward he is also excellent. His range of passing gets things going for the Cherries, and he has a sweet strike on him too. He is definitely the engine room of our side.
Up front we are struggling for goals at the moment. Grabban has gone off the boil a bit having been played on the wing recently, and our record signing Tukelo Rantie is struggling to adapt to life in English football. Brett Pitman is being presented with good chances but is not taking them in open play. At the back we have been a bit hit and miss on the road, but we have certainly improved of late and put in some wonderful defensive displays. At the heart of those displays is Steve Cook. He has been our player of the season so far, and is an excellent centre back: he wins headers, reads the game well and is also a good ball player. At full back Simon Francis is struggling this term up against some tricky wingers but Charlie Daniels gives us a very good attacking option and links up beautifully with Pugh. In goal we did have problems but Howe has moved to sort that out with the loan signing of Lee Camp, who is an excellent addition at this level and a very safe pair of hands.
Sometimes our style can let us down on the road, playing a very open expansive game from the back, but we stick to that style and on our day it can provide problems for any team in the league.
Presumably, given the promotion and the work he’s done as a player and manager at the club before. Eddie Howe’s stock is very high with the supporters? Why does he do so well at Bournemouth?
GC: Everybody at the club loves Eddie Howe and it's easy to see why. He started off his playing career with us and went on to make over 200 appearances for us before earning a move to Portsmouth. Injuries hampered his time there and he soon returned to Bournemouth to continue his playing career.
His managerial career is quite similar really. He was handed the impossible task of keeping the club in the football league when appointed in 2009 with the club ten points adrift of safety having had -17 points at the start of the season, but he managed it and has been a hero ever since. Howe led Bournemouth to promotion in his second season in charge. The following season in League 1, the club were well on course for successive promotions, but Howe left for a new challenge at Championship club Burnley, a decision that didn't go down too well with fans. But fans welcomed him back with the club struggling in League 1 last year, and they were right to do so with Howe sparking an incredible turnaround that saw them promoted to the Championship.
All of this and he is still only 36 years old, it's good to see a young manager having so much success and he has a big future ahead of him. He just feels at home at Bournemouth, he doesn't seem to do as well away from the club, which has shown. He has all his family around him and feels comfortable in the area, and is loved by everyone which must help. He plays an attractive style of football which goes down well with supporters and ultimately has lead the club from going out of the football league to being a Championship side. He is one of our own and we will do well to keep hold of him in the future with big clubs sure to approach him.
Bournemouth seem to be perennially in a state of boom and bust — administration, new ownership, then admin again. What’s the current boardroom situation and how do the fans feel about it?
GC: It has been a turbulent period for the club over recent years but we are enjoying a degree of stability at the moment. It's a stark contrast to when we were at games with collection buckets collecting money to keep the club in existence, so we must enjoy where we are now and be proud of it because you don't know what is round the corner in football. We are now completely owned by Russian business man Maxim Demin after former chairman Eddie Mitchell sold all of his stakes in the club in September. Mitchell divided opinion at the club following many instances of public controversy so many were pleased to see the back of him, but it must be said he did a lot of good for the club as well and was there in the dark gloomy days. Like with most foreign owners, fans don't really know what goes on behind closed doors, so there's not really much we can do about it. Yes, it could turn out to be a disaster and we have invested massively over the last couple of seasons but we should just enjoy what we are doing on the field at the moment. We are all happy that Jeff Mostyn is back as chairman, so at least there is a face to the boardroom who we all know loves the club and we trust him.
Hopes, aims and fears in the medium, short and long term… Where do you think you’ll finish this season?
GC: I just hope we keep playing our attractive brand of football and stay in the division. That would be a great achievement staying in this division at the first attempt, and then after we have consolidated ourselves in this division, with the financial backing we have, who knows how far we can go. We've seen teams like Blackpool do it in the past, so why not us? Long term though I just hope we have a stable football club that I can go and watch every week without worrying about the future of the club. We've had those hard times in the past and I would hate for it to return to that state with the position we are now in. Short term I just hope we get a win soon, we have a tough week this week but after that have a reasonable looking festive period. What I don't want is for the winless run to go on any longer and to get dragged into the relegation fight. I think we will finish in and around fifteenth spot with any luck.
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