Andoni Goes Home

September 19, 2026

Some years ago, now we were in the Runcorn services after a home game and there was a family of Bournemouth fans in there. One young lad said, “We’re on minus seven now” referring to the points deduction they’d been handed at the start of the season. They were in the fourth tier of the league and still faced the prospect of dropping out of the league altogether. Tomorrow, we travel down to what I still call Dean Court to play two days after they’d play an away European game. Bournemouth are playing in Europe while the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham aren’t. I don’t know if that young lad still goes but his fellow fans are surely living a dream. And it was our manager who piloted them to the European qualification, so the game takes on a fair bit of significance. Apart from the long-term sickness Andoni said everyone was fit and Joe Gomez survived his 45-minute return. We won’t be able to cite tiredness if things don’t go as we would want because it’s Bournemouth who have had the shorter recovery period. The time for all to step up to the plate is now and as our manager knows life down on the south coast isn’t as easy as it once was for visiting teams.