"It's not long ago we were playing Oldham Athletic and Hartlepool United in League One. Now I'm about to watch us play AC Milan. Fifteen years to the day after Bournemouth lost 2-1 at home to Bury in the third tier of English football, the Cherries host seven-time champions of Europe AC Milan in the Europa League on Thursday ( ).
It is a game between the club that refused to die against the 11-time European Cup finalists on what promises to be a momentous night in the history of the 127-year-old Dorset club. "Over the last decade, my hometown club has achieved dreamland," Tony Pulis, who played in Bournemouth's defence before managing them from 1992-94 and still lives in the area, tells BBC Sport. "It's an unbelievable story, when I think back to what the club was like when I was player, coach and then manager there in the 1980s and early 1990s, but one that hopefully just keeps going." Bournemouth's troubled past and their subsequent climb up the leagues is well documented - from bucket collections and facing liquidation as recently as 2008 to finishing 21st in League Two in 2008-09 and winning promotion to the Premier League in 2015.
Now an established top-flight side, Bournemouth are making their debut season in Europe, looking to topple one of European football's great clubs. "We used to train on the park over from the stadium," says Joe Partington, who played in midfield for Bournemouth in League One and League Two after coming through the academy, and is now BBC Radio Solent's regular Cherries summariser. "Now fans walk through the park to watch European games." Minus 17 to European dreams as Bournemouth fairytale continues 'The whole thing still seems surreal for fans' On this day in 2011, Bournemouth were 21st in the third tier of English football, with 12 points from 14 games, after losing at home to Bury.
Later on that season, they would lose away at Bury, Rochdale and Oldham. "Back then, we had to get changed in one part of Bournemouth then drive somewhere else to train before driving somewhere else for lunch," says Partington, who featured in that game against Bury 15 years ago. Tovey, from the Cherries Red Army fan channel, recalls home crowds of 6,000 around that time.
"As a fan, you could just rock up 10 minutes before kick-off and walk in," he says. While Bournemouth's Vitality stadium is comfortably the smallest in the Premier League in terms of capacity, work is under way to expand it and last week's attendance figure of 12,070 for the 3-0 Europa League win over Sturm Graz was easily their highest of the 21st century. Another 12,000-plus will pack in for the visit of an AC Milan team managed by former Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim, with many fans resigned to watching the match on television after missing out on a ticket.
"My niece loves Bournemouth but she's missed out because she hasn't got enough points to get a ticket," adds Tovey. "She's gutted." Pulis has been impressed with the club's significant progress under the ownership of US billionaire Bill Foley, who completed his takeover in 2022. "They are now an established Premier League club, with a brand new training facility that can rival most in this country," he says.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
