WHILE most of the focus from the outside is naturally on changes in the first team under a new owner and head coach, the impact of the club’s progression has a drip-feed effect.
A lot has changed very quickly at Cherries. Less than a year ago, the club had an interim head coach, who had just replaced the man to achieve promotion into the Premier League, who had been dismissed having criticised a lack of summer spending.
Scott Parker’s departure seems a lifetime ago.
Since, Bill Foley has bought the club, spent around £150million on new players, accelerated works on a new training ground, improved the look of the stadium and invested in the women’s team. He has also sacked the man who kept Cherries in the top flight, replacing him with a highly sought after head coach, the club’s first overseas appointment to that role.
But how has all that affected things lower down the pyramid at the club?
Despite all of the above, one of the biggest pieces of news announced over the summer was Cherries being awarded category two academy status.
It had been a long time in the making, and immediately opened up new avenues for the youth teams.
Rather than a string of friendlies at Canford Park Arena, often waiting weeks for a fixture, Cherries’ second string now play regularly in a competitive league.
All five of their Professional Development League matches so far have come at first-team stadia. There have been a couple of baptisms of fire to the new level, losing 3-0 at Barnsley’s Oakwell and 4-0 against Hull City at MKM Stadium.
But there have too been encouraging results, beating Coventry City at their home ground, defeating Peterborough United at Wimborne Town’s New Cuthbury and impressing in spells during their draw with Sheffield Wednesday last week at Vitality Stadium.
For the development squad and the club’s other youth teams, results are still not the be-all and end-all. It is about far more than that.
The level of your own team and opposition can fluctuate massively week-to-week. Just look at the past two fixtures for Alan Connell’s side as the prime example. On Tuesday, they had three first-team players in their side in Darren Randolph, Gavin Kilkenny and one the best talents at the club in Marcus Tavernier, on his way back from injury.
On Saturday, Cherries did not even fill their bench, with some under-18s called in to provide cover, with a number of under-21 regulars out injured.
Bearing all that in mind, how much can the lower age groups successfully try to replicate what the first team are looking to produce?
New head coach Andoni Iraola has a very clear style he is trying to implement in the Premier League, based around pressing and winning the ball back high.
There were clear signs of Connell’s team looking to replicate that against Sheffield Wednesday, albeit with a slightly makeshift side. Midfielder Toure Williams was playing further forward than he usually would, to accommodate important match minutes for Kilkenny in a deeper role.
That meant Williams was towards the front of the press as the advanced midfielder in a ‘vertical’ line of three, with Jack Wadham and Kilkenny behind. Leading the line were Kian Tydeman and Ben Winterburn, both traditionally midfielders themselves, playing half each as a striker. Two regular centre-forwards at that level in Daniel Adu-Adjei and Euan Pollock watched on injured from the stands.
It is the same we see from the first team, with Ryan Christie or Philip Billing often taking on that mantle as the advanced central midfielder, supporting Dominic Solanke.
“The manager is an absolute gentleman,” development squad boss Connell told the Daily Echo, when asked about conversations he has had with Iraola.
“He’s a class act. When he first came in, he pulled me in and we had half an hour just us two, going through the way he wants to play.
“It’s things we were prepping already before he came in, watching Rayo Vallecano and how they played.
“He’s been very open with us. And obviously my relationship with (first team coaches) Shaun Cooper and Tommy Elphick is strong, so there is constant conversations.
“We are trying to implement what he wants, in and out of possession.
“I’m not saying every single detail, because games change, personnel changes.
“But we want to be front foot, we want to be aggressive on the press. And we want to commit bodies in the box in possession and be a team that are high energy and create chances.”
Speaking when he first arrived at the club about how he sees the alignment between the first team and lower age groups, Iraola said: “I think with the youth teams, I am not so ‘we have to play with this exact system’.
“I think it is good they have the main idea we have.
“We want to play high intensity, high rhythm, quite vertical. If they play like this, it will be much easier for the players.
“But I don’t think it’s also fair for them to say ‘you have to play with one six here, one eight exactly here’, no. I think we have to leave them to work, to do their job.
“But it is good that they have the same idea we have as a club.”
While it has been a big change to hire Iraola as head coach, there were not sweeping incomings and departures from the coaching staff.
Elphick and Cooper remain coaches with the first team, with only fitness coach Pablo de la Torre arriving so far to join Iraola and Tim Jenkins departing to link up with Gary O’Neil at Wolves. It is hoped Inigo Perez can arrive as Iraola’s assistant, but he is currently facing work permit issues.
“There’s been changes in recent years, in all departments, because that’s the nature of football,” said Connell.
“But I think it’s really important our club has had a lot of consistency over the years of people that know the history and journey the club has been on.
“I think it’s important, whilst there are changes and always will be changes in football, that there’s a core group there that love the club and want it to be successful.
“Myself, Shaun, Tommy, we all care deeply for the club and want the best for the club that we’ve been associated with for a long time. It’s a privilege to work with these people every day.”
One player who has worked with all of the aforementioned coaches at some point during his year at the club, is midfielder Dominic Sadi.
The 20-year-old featured twice for the first team last season and went away with the senior group for a training camp in Marbella this summer, playing under Iraola in a friendly against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
He is now back with the development squad and scored in the 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday as Iraola, Elphick, Cooper and others watched on from the stands.
Asked how he finds trying to translate the new first-team style of play into the unpredictability of development squad football, Sadi told the Daily Echo: “It’s not difficult, because everyone here is on the same page.
“Everyone here is working to be part of the first team. We all help each other out, so we know what type of place that we want to play.
"Once we all nail it down, like against Sheffield Wednesday, you know what type of place we can play.
“It’s just we dominate and we can show the manager (watching on) that we can play his style, we are there whenever, we’re ready and just going to knuckle down and keep going.”
With owner Foley have ambitious plans for the club, his first priority is to get work on the new training ground at Canford Magna completed.
That will allow staff and players to move away from their current training base next to Vitality Stadium, with that land earmarked for potential stadium expansion.
The £32million project at the 57-acre former golf club is progressing all the time and is in partial use already.
Making good progress 💪
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) September 6, 2023
Here's an update on our new training complex 🏗️ pic.twitter.com/SOJcpiO6GW
“The academy staff have been there since Christmas, in the office,” Connell explained.
“The outdoor 3G is being used by all the age groups and I think the dome is progressing well, along with all the other stuff going on.
“It’s definitely coming on quickly. I don’t know what timeframe we’re looking at for when we’ll all be training there, but it’s really exciting that all the success of the last decade, there’s a real legacy to show for it.
“Along with the new owner coming in and being really ambitious with his plans for the future.
“It’s always been a great club to be at, but the future is very bright for AFC Bournemouth.”
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