Football Season Guide

Bournemouth were one of the great disappointments of League One in 2011/12 season, as they entered the season looking to repeat their success from a season earlier, when they made the Play-Offs, but never managed to recover from their poor start that saw them flirting with relegation despite coming close to the sixth place at one point. What was particularly disappointing about the Cherries' campaign was that the club spent heavily to no avail, and it was perhaps somewhat surprising that Paul Groves was allowed to remain manager going into the 2011/12 season, given that absolutely no improvements were shown after he took over from Lee Bradbury. Despite changing their squad quite a bit over the summer, the fact of the matter is that the Cherries' core is pretty similar to last season, given that none of the players that left, apart from Scott Malone, were regular players. The midfielder was sent to Millwall in a player-swap deal that saw fan favorite Josh McQuoid returning to the Dean Court stadium, and the Charries' Player of the Year in the 2010/11 campaign will now be expected to lead the club to Play-Off glory. A thing that worked heavily against Bournemouth last season was their injury situation, as they often had as many as ten players sidelined with different injuries - and one can only expect them to have more luck in that department this season. Given that funds were once again made available, chairman Eddie Mitchell shouldn't be expected to have too much patience with Groves if things don't start well, as there will be simply no excuses if the Cherries have another poor campaign.