It is 13 years since Bournemouth, a couple of months after finishing runners-up to Doncaster in the third tier, hosted Real Madrid. It was a balmy summer’s day, officially Carlo Ancelotti’s first match in charge, and, a few hours after checking into the Haven hotel on the Sandbanks peninsula, a wave of galácticos took to the pitch: Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric, Kaká, Karim Benzema, the list goes on. An early, wayward Ronaldo free-kick broke the wrist of an 11-year‑old boy before Madrid ran out 6-0 winners in a bucket-list friendly.
I wanted to say to Eddie Howe: ‘Can I have five minutes on the pitch?’ For them to play here was utterly ridiculous.” It was one of the stranger days in Bournemouth’s recent history and on Thursday they will take another step when they face Real Sociedad in their first competitive game against European opposition. On the final day of last season, Bournemouth’s staff and players celebrated qualifying for the Europa League by gathering around a “Rayanair” flag depicting their Brazil forward piloting a plane, giddy supporters providing the perfect backdrop for the pictures, and those fans have since booked trips to Prague, Oslo and Vigo. Perhaps it was fate that Andoni Iraola, who grew up in the Basque Country, would guide Bournemouth to San Sebastián.
He has exchanged messages this week with Iraola, who sent best wishes, including for a win. The scale of the achievement is not lost on Fletcher. Iraola, who will return to Bournemouth with Liverpool on Sunday – with his assistants Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper, both of whom also played for the club in the third tier – was the mastermind.
I think everyone will feel very emotional on Thursday.” La Real are playing in Europe for the sixth time in seven seasons but for Bournemouth, coached by Marco Rose, this is new ground. It was not unplanned, though. At the end of 2023, when Bournemouth were 14th in the Premier League, their bullish American billionaire owner, Bill Foley, predicted they would play in Europe within five years.
Foley’s motto “Always Advance, Never Retreat” adorns a wall in the boardroom. His winning goal at home against Grimsby on the penultimate day of the 2008-09 season ensured Bournemouth would not fall into non-league, the club having begun the season on -17 points after failing to exit administration. He subsequently worked in the recruitment department, as first‑team coach to Howe, Gary O’Neil and Scott Parker and then as a player liaison officer.
Adam Smith, the 35-year-old Bournemouth captain into his 15th season at the club, including a loan in League One in 2010-11, remembers the days of training at Canford school, round the corner from the state-of-the-art facility they moved into 18 months ago. Did Europe feel plausible when he signed from Tottenham as a teenager? Fletcher references Neil Vacher, the former club secretary and current club historian who grew up as a supporter in the 1960s.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
