I's hard to believe that it's a full 12 months since Eddie Howe returned to Dean Court to lead the Cherries from near relegation to automatic promotion in what turned out to be a remarkable season.
A full year later the Cherries are sitting in a very respectable position in the Championship, with everything to be optimistic about.
Chairman Jeff Mostyn is quoted is quoted in the Bournemouth Evening Echo on the year we've just had as saying: "For whatever reason, to me it is a marriage made in heaven. He has been at the football club – with the two notable excep tions at Portsmouth and Burnley – since he was 11. The club, the supporters and the town love Eddie. And the reverse can be said – Eddie loves the football club, the supporters and the town. He is a local lad and you could just sense on the day he came back that it was like the prodigal son returning. here was an immediate upsurge of energy around the football club from the boardroom, the staff and the players. There was a level of expectation that he brought which was a realistic level of expectation. Often, you get a new manager and there is a level of expectation, but it doesn’t always happen. In Eddie’s case, for whatever reason, you knew it was going to happen. I think we had won one game out of the first 13 and then, suddenly, we only lost two out of the next 20.”