A.F.C. Bournemouth

Although the exact date of the club's foundation is not known, there is proof that it was formed in the autumn of 1899 out of the remains of the older Boscombe St. John's Institute F.C.[3] The club was originally known as Boscombe F.C. The first president was Mr. J. C. Nutt.[4]

In their first season, 1899–1900, Boscombe F.C. competed in the Bournemouth and District Junior League. They also played in the Hants Junior Cup. During the first two seasons, they played on a football pitch in Castlemain Avenue, Pokesdown. From their third season, the team played on a pitch in King's Park. In the 1905–06 season, Boscombe F.C. graduated to senior amateur football.[5]

In 1910, the club was granted a long lease over some wasteland next to Kings Park as the club's football ground by local businessman J.E. Cooper-Dean. With their own ground, named Dean Court after the benefactor, the club continued to thrive and dominated the local football scene. The same year the club signed its first professional player Baven Penton.[6]

Around about this time, the club obtained their nickname "The Cherries". There are two leading explanations of how the club gained the nickname: from the cherry-red striped shirts that the team played in, and, perhaps less plausible, because Dean Court was built adjacent to the Cooper-Dean estate, which, it is believed, may have contained many cherry trees.

For the first time, during the 1913–14 season, the club competed in the FA Cup. The club's progress, however, was halted in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I, and Boscombe F.C. returned to the Hampshire League.

In 1920, the Third Division of the Football League was formed, and Boscombe were promoted to the Southern League, finding moderate success.

Dean Court

To make the club more representative of the district, the name was changed to Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic F.C. in 1923. During the same year, the club was elected to the newly-expanded Football League Third Division. The first league match was at Swindon Town on 25 August 1923, which Bournemouth lost 3–1. The first league game at Dean Court was also against Swindon, where Bournemouth gained their first league point after a 0–0 draw.

Initially, Bournemouth struggled in the Football League but eventually established themselves as a Third Division club. Bournemouth remains on the records as the longest continuous members of the Third Division.

As a league club, Bournemouth had to wait until after the Second World War before winning their first trophy. This was accomplished as they beat Walsall in the Third Division (South) Cup in the final at Stamford Bridge.

Under manager John Bond, the club adopted the more streamlined A.F.C. Bournemouth name in 1972. At the same time, the club adopted a new badge as a symbol of the club's progress. The stripes in the background were based on the club shirt, while in the foreground is the profile of a player heading the ball, in honour of Dickie Dowsett, a prolific scorer for the club in the 1950s and 1960s.[7]

Their red and black kit, introduced in 1971, was based on the A.C. Milan strip.[8] This was the era of Ted MacDougall, a prolific goalscorer who, in an FA Cup tie in November 1971, scored nine goals in an 11–0 win against Margate.

Chart of yearly table positions of Bournemouth in the League.

The club recorded a famous victory over holders Manchester United in the FA Cup in January 1984, while they were managed by Harry Redknapp.[9][10]

Redknapp took Bournemouth into the second tier of the English league for the first time in their history as Third Division champions in 1987. After comfortably surviving in their first season in the Second Division, Bournemouth made a serious challenge for promotion to the top flight in the 1988–89 season; they ultimately fell away after a poor run late in the season, but their eventual finish of 12th place remained their highest-ever in the Football League until the 2013–14 season.

On 5 May 1990, the final day of the 1989–90 season, Leeds United had the chance to win the Second Division and gain promotion into the First Division by beating Bournemouth at Dean Court. Some United fans had already caused trouble in the town during the morning and the atmosphere was tense as Leeds won the match by a single goal. Combined with the results of other matches, this 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 £1 million worth of damage and injury to opposing fans and police officers.[11] 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."[11] The matter was raised in Parliament by one of the town's MPs. 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.

Redknapp remained at the club for two more seasons, both of which ended with the club falling three points short of the play-offs. However, mounting financial pressures caused him to resign his position at the end of the 1991–92 season, and he subsequently rejoined former club West Ham United as a coach. He was replaced by Tony Pulis, who built a much cheaper squad that could only manage two consecutive 17th-place finishes before Pulis walked out of the club, blaming financial pressures.

Bournemouth went the first few months of the 1994–95 season without a permanent manager in place, and a dreadful start saw them bottom of the table for much of the first half of the season. Despite a minor upturn in form when Mel Machin was appointed as manager, they looked highly unlikely to survive, given that there were five relegation spots in Division Two for that season due to league reconstruction. However, a late run of form combined with collapses by relegation rivals Cambridge United and Plymouth Argyle saw them survive on the last day of the season by two points.

Machin ultimately remained in charge for six years, most of which were marked by unremarkable mid-table finishes. The 1998–99 season proved to be arguably the highlight of his tenure, with the club making a serious playoff challenge for most of the season, but ultimately falling short and finishing seventh. However, a drop to 16th place in the 1999–2000 season followed by a poor start to the following season saw Machin removed from his position and given the role of director of football.

Former AFC Bournemouth crest

Sean O'Driscoll was promoted from the coaching staff in place of Mel Machin at the start of the 2000–01 season. In O'Driscoll's first season as manager, Bournemouth narrowly missed out on the Division Two playoffs but were relegated a year later in the new stadium (in the early part of the 2001–02 season, they played their home matches at Dorchester Town's ground while their own stadium was being redeveloped). The board kept faith in O'Driscoll and they were rewarded with promotion via the Division Three playoffs in 2002–03. The club became the first to score five goals at the Millennium Stadium when they beat Lincoln City 5-2 in the 2002–03 Division Three play-off final with goals from Steve Fletcher, Carl Fletcher (2), Stephen Purches and Garreth O'Connor. Under O'Driscoll, Bournemouth narrowly missed out on the play-offs for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons, and just avoided relegation in the 2005–06 season.

Long-serving player James Hayter scored the fastest league hat-trick in English Football League history during the 2003–04 season. The Cherries were leading 3–0 against Wrexham thanks to goals from Stephen 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 two minutes and 17 seconds, making the final score 6–0 to Bournemouth.

In September 2006, with the team in eighth in the League, Sean O'Driscoll left to become manager of Doncaster Rovers. He was replaced by Kevin Bond.

In February 2008, Bournemouth were forced into administration, suffering a ten-point deduction which put them in relegation trouble. Bournemouth had debts of around £4 million and almost went out of business completely.[12] The off-field uncertainty continued throughout the season, with only one, ultimately unsuccessful, bid for the club accepted,[13] and the club ended the season being relegated to League Two.

Ahead of the 2008–09 season, the team's future in the Football League was put into doubt when the league threatened to block Bournemouth's participation in League Two, due to problems with the team's continuing administration and change in ownership. It ordered both Bournemouth and Rotherham United to demonstrate that they could fulfil all of their fixtures and find a way out of administration,[14] eventually allowing the club to compete with a 17-point penalty for failing to follow the Football League insolvency rules. The new company was also ordered to pay unsecured creditors the amount offered at the time of the original CVA (around ten pence in the pound) within two years.[15]

Early into the season, manager Bond was sacked and was replaced by former player Jimmy Quinn, who would himself leave the club only a few months later.[16] Former player Eddie Howe took over as manager with the club still ten points adrift at the bottom of the league and initially on a caretaker basis, becoming the youngest manager in the Football League at the age of 31.[17]

At the end of 2008, it was announced that local businessman Adam Murry had completed the purchase of 50% of the club's shares from previous chairman, Paul Baker. However, in January 2009, Murry missed the deadline to buy Baker's shares.[18]

In the final home game of the 2008–09 season, the Cherries guaranteed their Football League status by beating Grimsby Town 2–1 with a winning goal ten minutes from time by Bournemouth's Steve Fletcher, sparking wild celebrations after a fairytale ending to "The Great Escape." They finished their troubled season with their best away win in 30 years with a 4–0 victory at Morecambe.

In June 2009, a consortium including Adam Murry finally took over A.F.C. Bournemouth. The consortium included Jeff Mostyn, former vice-chairman Steve Sly, Neill Blake and former Dorchester Town chairman Eddie Mitchell.

Howe's first full season in charge brought success as Bournemouth finished second in League Two to earn promotion with two games to spare. Howe subsequently left the club for Burnley during the following season; his successor, another former Bournemouth player, Lee Bradbury, led Bournemouth to the League One play-offs. The two-legged semi-final against Huddersfield Town finished 3–3 after extra time, and Huddersfield went through the final by winning the penalty shoot-out 4–2. Bradbury was unable to lead Bournemouth to another promotion challenge in the 2011–12 Football League One, placing 11th after a season of indifferent results, and was replaced by youth team coach Paul Groves for the final games of the season.

Groves remained in charge at the start of the 2012–13 season, only to be sacked in October 2012 following a start which left the club near the bottom of the table. Eddie Howe returned as manager, and not only did he pull the club away from their early-season relegation battle, they achieved promotion to the Championship, returning to the second-tier of English football for the first time since 1990. The club also revealed a new club crest.[19] After a promising start to life in the Championship, the club was handed a fourth Round FA Cup tie with Premier League club Liverpool which ended in a 2–0 loss. Bournemouth finished their first season back in the Championship in tenth place, their highest ever position in the Football League.

On 25 October 2014, Bournemouth won 8–0 away at St. Andrew's against Birmingham City. It was the first time that the Cherries had ever scored eight goals in a league game and their largest winning margin in the league (barring a 10–0 win over Northampton Town in September 1939, which was discounted after the league was abandoned due to the Second World War).[20] The club followed up this success with a 2–1 victory over Premier League side West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup, reaching the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time. Bournemouth were again drawn against Liverpool but lost 3–1. The club spent most of the 2014–15 season near the top of the table, and a 3-0 win away at Charlton Athletic on the final day of the season was enough to clinch the Championship title and a first-ever promotion to the top flight of English football.[21]

Bournemouth's first ever game in the top flight of English football was a 1–0 defeat home to Aston Villa played on 8 August 2015. Early on in the 2015–16 season the team was beset by a number of crippling injuries, including to their captain, Tommy Elphick, and their star striker from the previous season, Callum Wilson, who was injured for the majority of the season. The team struggled for most of the first half of the season until a turning point was reached during a game at Dean Court against Everton in which Junior Stanislas scored a goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time to tie the game. From there, Bournemouth defeated Chelsea and Manchester United in back-to-back wins. The team eventually finished 16th in the league, securing their Premier League status for another year.

Their second season, despite being largely tipped to suffer second season syndrome, they defied all odds to finish in 9th place. Their squad was largely defined by the highly publicized loans of Jack Wilshere from Arsenal and Nathan Aké from Chelsea, but also by the strong form of Josh King, who scored 16 goals in 36 appearances, and the £15 million pound move of Jordon Ibe from Liverpool. A weak start to the season saw them in the relegation zone for the first three weeks, but after a 1–0 victory against West Bromwich Albion, they never again dropped below 16th place in the table.[22] Key points of the season occurred when they soundly defeated Hull City 6–1 and defeated Liverpool 4–3, both of which helped their survival push at the end of the season, when they went unbeaten in the last five matches and earned 11 points from 15.

In preparation for the following season, Howe signed Aké permanently for a club-record fee,[23] while Asmir Begović[24] and Jermain Defoe[25] The season began poorly, with the team losing their first 4 matches.[26] However, a run of good form through late December and January saw them steer clear the relegation zone, and saw Howe earn his second Premier League Manager of the Month award.[27] They won 2–1 at home against Arsenal,[28] had a 3–0 victory at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea[29] and gained 19 points from losing positions in the second half of the season; a Premier League Record.[30] The team battled inconsistent form the rest of the season, but still managed a 12th-place finish.[31]

The 2018–19 season saw Howe sign David Brooks, Diego Rico, and Jefferson Lerma during the summer, the latter joining for a club-record fee.[32][33] Contrasting with the previous season, the club had a strong start, sitting in 6th place after the first 12 rounds. However, their form regressed for the remainder of the season and the club battles injury problems, with Lewis Cook, Simon Francis shelved amongst others. Dominic Solanke, Chris Mepham and Nathaniel Clyne all joined the club during the winter, Solanke and Mepham permanently and Clyne on loan. In the end, Bournemouth finished in 14th place, securing a 5th season in the Premier League.

In 2016, Bournemouth were found guilty of violating the Football League's Financial Fair Play regulations during 2014–2015, the season it secured promotion to the Premier League. The club's over-spend broke the ‘maximum deviation’, with a £38.3 million financial loss in 2014–2015. This followed a loss of £10.3 million in 2013–2014. The club was originally fined £7.6 million by the Football League, but subsequently negotiated a settlement with a fine of £4.75 million for breaching Financial Fair Play rules. The decision followed months of speculation and investigation about the club breaking Football League regulations.[34][35][36]

As of 31 January 2020[37][38]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Artur Boruc 2 DF Simon Francis (captain)[39] 3 DF Steve Cook (3rd captain) 4 MF Dan Gosling (4th captain) 5 DF Nathan Aké 6 MF Andrew Surman (vice-captain)[39] 7 FW Joshua King 8 MF Jefferson Lerma 9 FW Dominic Solanke 10 MF Jordon Ibe 11 DF Charlie Daniels 12 GK Aaron Ramsdale 13 FW Callum Wilson 14 MF Arnaut Danjuma 15 DF Adam Smith

No. Position Player 16 MF Lewis Cook 17 DF Jack Stacey 19 MF Junior Stanislas 20 MF David Brooks 21 DF Diego Rico 22 MF Harry Wilson (on loan from Liverpool) 24 MF Ryan Fraser 25 DF Jack Simpson 26 DF Lloyd Kelly 28 MF Kyle Taylor 29 MF Philip Billing 33 DF Chris Mepham 42 GK Mark Travers 44 FW Sam Surridge 53 MF Gavin Kilkenny

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 18 FW Jermain Defoe (at Rangers until 30 June 2020) 27 GK Asmir Begović (at Milan until 30 June 2020) 36 MF Matt Butcher (at St Johnstone until 31 May 2020) 38 MF Nnamdi Ofoborh (at Wycombe Wanderers until 31 May 2020)

No. Position Player 48 MF Harry Arter (at Fulham until 31 May 2020) 54 MF Alex Dobre (at Wigan Athletic until 31 May 2020) — DF Brad Smith (at Cardiff City until 31 May 2020)