Congratulations to AFC Bournemouth on securing promotion to the Premier League

Sweeney Todd said:

Would any Bournemouth fan care to explain why referees give them penalties against us, when no Brighton player has committed an offence (October 2010 and January 2014), yet fail to give us a penalty when one of their players blatantly scoops the ball away with his hand in the box (this month)?

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Not Andy Naylor said:

I'll own up straight away, I am definitely bitter and jealous. I've seen Bournemouth several times this season professionally, and hadn't seen them win until Easter Monday. Their defence has looked terrible on every occasion except the game at the Amex. And they've been very lucky indeed with injuries. The thought of having to make that horrendous journey to Dean Court even more often next season to see Bournemouth (Bournemouth FFS!!) in the Premier League is a grim prospect.

But there are lessons to be learned. After Burnley last season and AFCB this time, we can no longer seriously call on TB to open the chequebook (what a quaint, old-fashioned football-only notion these days - like a 'slide-rule' pass) as some way of guaranteeing promotion. As a Uruguayan bloke once told me, smart recruitment is the name of the game these days.

Ok, Bournemouth's wage bill is said to be huge, but how much did their team cost in transfers? Take Callum Wilson, top scorer with 19 goals, signed from Coventry for less than they got for Lewis Grabban. Compare our attempts to replace Leo Ulloa with a number of mediocrities. Oh, and Sam Baldock - played out of position, because that worked so well with CMS. Not very smart. Let's hope the new recruitment team can do better than Burke.

But of course, the main difference is in the management. Look at Sean Dyche and Eddie Howe. Some people on here would have you believe that 4-4-2 is the road to perdition, an outdated formation that no successful team would ever play. Well, Burnley and Bournemouth both play it. But they've got better players than us? Yes, footballing gods such as Sam Vokes, Ashley Barnes and Tommy Elphick, all of whom have, in the past, been castigated to varying degrees on here as not good enough for mighty us.

Is Chris Hughton the man to help us emulate Burnley and AFCB? The Kayal signing bodes well, the Best loan less so. His success in getting promotion with Newcastle was based on a squad of Premier League players. We need to see smart signings, the right formation to get the best from the players we have - does Kazenga always have to play on the left, or could he succeed elsewehere? - and players who want to play and succeed, not loan players just here to make up the numbers and who are tranparently no better than players we already have.

I wonder what would have happened to JFC at Bournemouth or Burnley. He's an automatic first choice for England under-21 yet looks worse and worse every time he plays for us. I have a feeling that if our well-paid coaching staff can solve that particular riddle, then they'll be well on the way to sorting out some of the other stuff.

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Superphil said:

But, but, but, we have a billionaire owner, who is a lifelong fan, and a huge stadium (too big for us?) and crowds around 20K (double Boremuff) and a training ground and matchday experience and fanzone and the best CEO in the business and, and

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Not Andy Naylor said:

I'll own up straight away, I am definitely bitter and jealous. I've seen Bournemouth several times this season professionally, and hadn't seen them win until Easter Monday. Their defence has looked terrible on every occasion except the game at the Amex. And they've been very lucky indeed with injuries. The thought of having to make that horrendous journey to Dean Court even more often next season to see Bournemouth (Bournemouth FFS!!) in the Premier League is a grim prospect.

But there are lessons to be learned. After Burnley last season and AFCB this time, we can no longer seriously call on TB to open the chequebook (what a quaint, old-fashioned football-only notion these days - like a 'slide-rule' pass) as some way of guaranteeing promotion. As a Uruguayan bloke once told me, smart recruitment is the name of the game these days.

Ok, Bournemouth's wage bill is said to be huge, but how much did their team cost in transfers? Take Callum Wilson, top scorer with 19 goals, signed from Coventry for less than they got for Lewis Grabban. Compare our attempts to replace Leo Ulloa with a number of mediocrities. Oh, and Sam Baldock - played out of position, because that worked so well with CMS. Not very smart. Let's hope the new recruitment team can do better than Burke.

But of course, the main difference is in the management. Look at Sean Dyche and Eddie Howe. Some people on here would have you believe that 4-4-2 is the road to perdition, an outdated formation that no successful team would ever play. Well, Burnley and Bournemouth both play it. But they've got better players than us? Yes, footballing gods such as Sam Vokes, Ashley Barnes and Tommy Elphick, all of whom have, in the past, been castigated to varying degrees on here as not good enough for mighty us.

Is Chris Hughton the man to help us emulate Burnley and AFCB? The Kayal signing bodes well, the Best loan less so. His success in getting promotion with Newcastle was based on a squad of Premier League players. We need to see smart signings, the right formation to get the best from the players we have - does Kazenga always have to play on the left, or could he succeed elsewehere? - and players who want to play and succeed, not loan players just here to make up the numbers and who are tranparently no better than players we already have.

I wonder what would have happened to JFC at Bournemouth or Burnley. He's an automatic first choice for England under-21 yet looks worse and worse every time he plays for us. I have a feeling that if our well-paid coaching staff can solve that particular riddle, then they'll be well on the way to sorting out some of the other stuff.

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maltaseagull said:

We are still losing Millions!

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DavidinSouthampton said:

Personally speaking, I did not start this thread, have participated in it in the form of banter, have never looked at any chat forum from another football club, have no "illusions" about Brighton being a big club and have never said anything about Bournemouth being minnows.

My first Brighton match was in 1967, I have not watched them regularly season in season out through all those years, but it has always been the first result I looked for, I am coming to the end of my second year now as a STH, and have already renewed for next year. I travel about 120 miles round trip for each home match I go to because it is an enjoyable experience (even when we are not doing well), and because no other team matters to me. my wife is a Saints STH and I have been down there with her on occasion, but I just can not get excited about it.

I have never been particularly bothered about Crystal Palace, which club many on here would say I ought to hate with a vengeance. I find the current Bournemouth success mildly irritating because I genuinely don't like the place - Brighton is much more interesting in every way - and I don't like Eddie Howe in the least.

But any irritation I might feel about all this will dissipate fairly quickly once the season is over. If we are in different divisions, which I suspect we will be, then I will be much more interested in what the teams in my own division are doing. If you are promoted, it will be - this is sticking in the throat - because..... you..... deserve it. Good luck to you. But I will not be getting excited on your behalf.

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We have sand said:

Obviously i completely disagree with you regarding Brighton being much more interesting, but im probably biased on that one, equally I have no feeling bad or good towards Brighton, but we are two of the 4 south coast clubs, and personally i would rather you do well than either Pompey or Southampton, i am not on here to try and wind any of you up, just put our point of view across, also this forum is very good and extremely active

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We have sand said:

i think you are confusing success and history, based on your thinking why would Brighton mentioning it ? hardly 2 times European champions yourselves are you ?

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GingerBeerMan said:

We don't have much history either, if it wasn't for the whole homeless debacle we'd be as insignificant as Bournemouth.

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Simster said:

Yes, fingers crossed.

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maltaseagull said:

We are still losing Millions!

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We have sand said:

Obviously i completely disagree with you regarding Brighton being much more interesting, but im probably biased on that one, equally I have no feeling bad or good towards Brighton, but we are two of the 4 south coast clubs, and personally i would rather you do well than either Pompey or Southampton, i am not on here to try and wind any of you up, just put our point of view across, also this forum is very good and extremely active

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We have sand said:

you have homeless, we have the highest rates of drub re-habs in Britain, your problems just seem significant because your there, as do ours, but on the other hand if you had a coastline to match ours or the new forest on your door step you'd be as magnificent as Bournemouth ;-)

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hans kraay fan club said:

Hahahaha aa. Utterly deluded. Fabulous rewrite there. You gave your team absolutely NOTHING until they went ahead.

As you well know, you were absolutely SILENT for the entire first half. Nerves I guess. You gave a 40 second go at Red Flag at the start of the second half, then went SILENT again until you scored.

You started singing 'shall we sing a song for you' on about 78 minutes, and I remember laughing, thinking, the stupid ***** have only sung two themselves so far.

Of course once the game was won you were constant and loud. Who wouldn't be?

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DavidinSouthampton said:

Fair enough. You have actually thawed my attitude towards Bournemouth a little. For the sake of individual decent fans like you, I hope you do OK.

Glad you like the forum. There is so much more to it than just football!

Deep down, it's Southampton that really get me through years of bias towards them on the Southern Television Channels and more recently because of Nigel Adkins.. But I have lots of friends and a wife who support them, and I actually like and have a great deal of respect for Ronald Koeman.

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