The Cherry On Top

Over dinner, Dan couldn’t stop talking about his favourite thing besides long distance running.

AFC Bournemouth 🍒.

He’s a diehard fan that can’t wipe the grin off his face when he explains the situation. They’ve just made Europe for the first time in their history after finishing sixth and going on an 18 game unbeaten run with Iraola. I don’t really follow the English League, but after learning about the team, I’ll be up at 4am watching them play in Europe later this year.

Mark my words a Netflix documentary is coming.

Nearly 30 years ago it was a different picture. The taxman gave them a hard noon deadline: pay up, or the club gets liquidated. With no billionaire saviour in sight, fans grabbed literal plastic buckets and stood in the town’s Winter Gardens gathering any coins they could to scrape together enough cash to keep the taxman at bay. They cobbled the cash together exactly five minutes before the liquidation papers were signed.

A decade later, they nearly died again. Another administration, and a season starting on minus 17 points. Reluctant rookie manager Eddie Howe executed a second miracle - escaping relegation on the last game of the season. A dramatic 2-1 over Grimsby. Even more incredible is that Howe was a homegrown player in that exact 1997 squad.

Fast forward to today, and a club that once counted pennies in a park is packing its bags for the Europa League.

Sometimes the wildest adventures come from the change in your pockets.

Now we wait for the draw.