The Psyche of an AFC Bournemouth Fan

kirsikka

UTC Legend
Being a fan of AFC Bournemouth is an integral part of my life; not just what I do but who I am. It’s been like that for so long it’s hard to think back to a time when the matches, news and gossip weren’t one of the axes around which my life revolved. One of the cornerstones by which I identify myself. Asked to summarise myself and my life in a short paragraph, after family it would feature pretty prominently. However, I’ve come to realise what it means has irrevocably changed in recent years and it’s hard to picture it’s future in terms of the past.

For so long when the question of football came up I knew where I stood, how to play it and what it meant. I’d state I was a fan of AFC Bournemouth when it was raised in conversation with new people, sometimes putting it as ‘The mighty, and I do mean mighty AFC Bournemouth’ if I felt the audience would understand that whilst I was being self-deprecating putting it like that I was also deadly serious about the club.

If the encounter was with someone that didn’t know a lot about football or was, for want of a better term, a glory hunter I was ready to field the oft-asked ‘Yeah, but who do you really support? You know, which proper team?’ I know this irritated the hell out of some people when asked similar questions but I always thought it was pointless getting angry as they’d simply never had the same kind of connection to a club so how could they understand? I’d set them straight as gently as I could and explain this was the one and only club for me and they were more than enough in what they did and they achieved. Sometimes this would garner a confused look, other times it would pique genuine curiosity.

Occasionally at this point a glory hunter might start going on about history, titles, cups and so on and I would take the opportunity to, this time stridently, point out that football history isn’t only about the winners or even those in the upper echelons or latter stages of a cup. A football club can have a varied, interesting and storied history that means just as much to their fans without them ever having taken part in the so-called big time.

When conversations came up about how great fans of this or that big club were, in volume and passion, I’d merely point out how much easier it is to follow a team that has a genuine chance of winning something. A club that has a history of spending money on players that may (probably not but the hope would be there when the cash is lashed) prove to be exciting, players much-wanted by their previous club. As opposed to travelling to support a team made up of waifs and strays not really rated elsewhere. I’d always argue that a fan of a club like, for example, Rochdale was far more passionate about their football than the average fan of a big club. Sure, numbers add noise but it takes a special kind of madness to use up a day of annual holiday from work to travel away to some cold northern outpost to watch a match in what is now called the EFL Trophy. I can’t say I ever quite managed to put myself up to that level of daftness but I still made AFC Bournemouth an important part of my life.

In fact, to put in a personal anecdote, in one of the most important periods of my life it’s something that stuck out during a back-and-forth battle over a girl. That girl is now my wife but when we met she was coming to a drawn out end of a long-term relationship with another English guy. Not being from these shores, she wasn’t too versed in football culture but she did like watching winners so was happy to attend a few matches with her previous boyfriend, whose family had long been season ticket holders at Highbury. Arsene Wenger had only been in charge for four years and so was very much in his prime of an amazing time to be an Arsenal fan. During the period when we were initially dating but she still had some contact with this previous long term relationship (it was a messy beginning!) her ex would push her for details on me and use everything she said to slag me off. She told me about the moment when he asked what football team I supported and she replied, which a knowing smile expecting him to laugh and lay into me ‘AFC Bournemouth’. She said he went quiet for a moment and then simply said ‘Ok, fair enough. I can’t criticise him for that at all. He supports his local team’. I think for her that was probably the first time she started to get that maybe there was more to this football thing and connection to a club than many outside of football understood.

That brings me back to the other people to whom I said ‘AFC Bournemouth’ when asked who I supported. Not the people making chit-chat or the glory hunters but the football fans with a real passion for it. Those were the conversations I relished. They got it. Much like my wife’s ex above, they instantly knew a lot about me and my relationship to football just from that short answer. Football conversations with fans of Woking, Stockport, Peterborough, Charlton and many others as well as the obvious Premier League teams. Whether it was at a party, in the pub or at work, they stick in the mind. Sometimes they would be the start of ongoing banter for years and with others it may have been one off conversation. However, even now there are some clubs who I immediately associate with a person from one of those chats as soon as I hear that club mentioned.

I almost hesitate to say ‘real football fans’ but I struggle to find the correct term to describe the kind of people who would instantly know so much about me from just the words ‘AFC Bournemouth’. They knew I wasn’t in it for the glory, I was a fan for the team and for the love of football and that was enough. That was something with which they could instantly identify.

Nobody could ever accuse somebody of being a fan of AFC Bournemouth for the glory because, frankly, there wasn’t really a period in our history which could be terms the glory years. No looking back to the time when the hopes of hitting the heights were front and centre for a prolonged period. Sure, the Harry spell was fun but short-lived and a brief sojourn in the second tier isn’t all that much to shout about if we talking genuine football glory. As for the Bond era, it was before I was born and, frankly, it’s hard to get too excited about a team that missed out on promotion to the second tier by one place before being dismantled shortly afterwards. I think that can only count as a period of glory and hope for those that lived it (sorry to those offended!).

I never had an issue with the lack of glory, I embraced it. If I’m honest I never expected it to change. Sure you might have dreams as a teenager but as reality starts to bite as an adult I accepted that AFC Bournemouth was a club without a huge following so unlikely to ever have the financial muscle to compete to go up to the top table. Any dream of a rich benefactor bankrolling the club was silly since there had been so much publicity about the club needing help for so many years of financial difficulties that if there was one out there, they’d surely have come forward by now. No problem for me.

This was my club and I enjoyed them for what they were. I harboured a small hope that we might one day assemble a team of cast-offs under a good, young manager early in his career that liked to pass the ball and would, hopefully, be able to hang onto enough of those players for long enough that we could someday sneak back into the second tier for a season or two. In many ways, that’s why I found the end of 2004/05 season so crushing. I always thought that was the team and that was the season when it should have happened. Watching Wade Elliot and co leave with the business unfinished was an awful experience and I thought it would probably be at least a decade before we rebuilt enough to maybe have another proper tilt at trying to get into the second tier.

Once the disappointment dissipated though, that was fine. To the future I looked forward, in the hope that we finally got over the financial difficulties that seemed to forever dog us and start to build a new, young team. The ambition remained to watch my club play a couple of seasons in the Championship but accepting that it may never happen was how I identified my football life. That’s how I saw my future with football and how I would couch the terms of what I hoped for when chatting with other football fans. There was nothing better than that to look back at in our history, we were almost the dictionary definition of a third tier English club, and hoping or expecting more was silliness I’d outgrown.

For me, that was the psyche of an AFC Bournemouth fan. We knew who we were and what we were without delusions of grandeur. We accepted it, lived in hope for a little more but weren’t really greedy in our ambitions.

Fast forward to now and we’ve had a decade that has felt like the kind of feeling you would normally only get for a few hours from something the government would classify as Class A and everything has changed. For the period between the Ipswich and Bolton matches, I don’t think I need to specify the season, my whole body was shaking. Literally shaking for long spells every day. Concentration on the tasks in hand was almost impossible as my mind struggled to cope with what was happening. Something that for most of my adult life I’d never considered a serious prospect was actually becoming quite likely but with the fear that we could still blow it. Hence the shaking.
 
That significant financial backing had arrived almost out of nowhere a few years previous, although with terrible bad luck merely months after the most talented manager we’d probably ever seen in our history had left the club. It took time to understand what having financial backing meant though but having the owner lash out a large sum to bring Howe back was a moment the veil lifted a little. That was the moment my relationship with the club and with football started to change. All the stuff with Howe prior to that was typical AFC Bournemouth. Suddenly though, we were a predator, not the prey. Reading the despair of the Swindon fans when we whopped £500k in cash down for their star player in the January transfer window to save them from going into administration but messing up their promotion hopes felt like watching the world in reverse.

Even a few years later, having arrived in the Premier League listening to all the plaudits was a joy but tinged with a belief that this was the season I had to enjoy and remember as I’d be looking back at it for the rest of my life. I remember being invited over to a friends house here in Finland. A beer and football watching afternoon with a group of football fans sounded great, only the host was a Spurs fan and they were playing at the same time as our match. I said I was ok for them to watch the Spurs match but only if they put a laptop next to the tv streaming our match at the same time. The belief that this may be, and probably was, only a one season thing and so I couldn’t miss any chance to watch AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League was still so strong. They laughed, thought I was a bit crazy but agreed to put up the laptop as well.

However, it turns out that a Barnsley or Blackpool style visit to the Premier League wasn’t to be our experience. If it had, you could still almost see us dropping back to League One and this becoming some kind of hazy dream from the past that would seem almost unreal. Now though, we’ve had a proper stay in this division. We’ve bloodied plenty of noses. We’ve played with verve and skill. We’ve even occasionally shown grit and determination. There are teams out there that will still see us as an expected six points but I doubt any of them think they only have to turn up to get them. We haven’t come up and been in perennial relegation battles, instead we’ve proved our worth of being members of this league.

It would appear we’re set for a fifth consecutive Premier League season, barring a disaster of horrifying proportions. That’s what set me off on this whole thought process and takes me back to the start and what it means for the psyche of an AFC Bournemouth fan.

Who knows how long we can be up here or what will happen when we do inevitably drop a level or more. Will we revert to type and become a League One club again? Will the financial overhang of the Premier League period mean something even worse for a time? It’s impossible to say from here but what I do know is I can never go back to having the same outlook on football again.

In those conversations in the future when I meet people and football comes up, when I mention AFC Bournemouth this is the period that will immediately get referenced by others. We’re living it now so it’s hard to see but for many people out there this is the only AFC Bournemouth they know. For the more hardcore football fans, even though they’ll know about other periods, this is still likely what they will want to talk about.

If in the future we were stuck back in mid-table League One of what would my football dreams then consist? It’s so hard to see because the barriers of what seems realistic have been completely obliterated. At this moment I find it hard to imagine what that hypothetical future me will be thinking.

A 15 year old AFC Bournemouth fan who only got into football around age 8 or 9 has only ever really known us as at club in the top two tiers. That’s mind blowing for me and I’m almost scared for them! Their expectations for the club and where it sits in the pantheon of football must be so far removed from mine.

Even though my own life situation has meant that since December 2013 I’ve only been able to experience it from afar, one match aside, it’s still been a life changing experience for me. I said right at the start that AFC Bournemouth was one of the axes around which my life rotated and I think I’m still going through a period of adjustment to allow for the fact that this particular axis has tilted dramatically in a way I wasn’t expecting.

Whether we suddenly come apart and go down soon or somehow how hang on and spend a significant period at the top tier, whether we yo-yo up and down for a few years or drop like a stone I’ll still unwaveringly follow the club. I don’t think that’s especially unusual to anyone that posts on here, you’ll almost all be the same. However, my outlook and has been irrevocable changed and I think it’s still going to be many years before I’m able to really understand exactly how that will take shape. I guess that will be the same for many fans of AFC Bournemouth.

In other words, football eh? Blimey.
 
Certainly a weird time to be alive. I put a line in my CV years back to try and help it stand out a little, though nowadays it certainly seems somewhat out of context. "I follow my hometown football team to most away games, I feel this shows both a sense of loyalty and ability to cope with disappointment"
 
Crikey, thats a post that could only have been written on an international break w/end. Appreciate you writing it though.
Can identify with all of that (and add in the Bond years as well).
As for me all I can say is that I am hugely enjoying the ride and I must admit I don't think much past the next couple of games.
After the stress of being closely involved with the club through all the administration seasons everything that happened from then on paled into insignificance compared to the very real possibility of no football club at all.
I wonder what your wifes ex thinks of us (and you) now ?:utc:
 
Certainly a weird time to be alive. I put a line in my CV years back to try and help it stand out a little, though nowadays it certainly seems somewhat out of context. "I follow my hometown football team to most away games, I feel this shows both a sense of loyalty and ability to cope with disappointment"
Whats a CV?
 
"....it’s something that stuck out during a back-and-forth battle over a girl.

I wondered for a moment where that was going ! But glad to hear you got the girl in the end. Cherries 1 Arsenal 0.
 
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Crikey, thats a post that could only have been written on an international break w/end. Appreciate you writing it though.

For the first time in what must be about 15 years I have some regular free time so I'm trying to make myself write something on a semi-regular basis. Hence 'The Eddie Howe Years' and posts like this appearing. You're not wrong about it chiming with the international break though!

I wonder what your wifes ex thinks of us (and you) now ?:utc:

That and one of my best friends also being an Arsenal season ticket holder brought a little extra smile to my face when we beat them. Silly given how many years later it is but I couldn't help it!

"....it’s something that stuck out during a back-and-forth battle over a girl.

I wondered for a moment where that was going !

Similar to much of my thought process about everything at that time! In fact, life mirrors art in that I was used to dating at League One level and suddenly found myself with a PL girlfriend. Yet, here we and AFCB are all these years later!
 
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As a lifelong AFCB fan I was heartened to read your posts. My first wife was a Huddersfield lass who supported her home team. That didn't last long. My second wife, several years my junior, had no interest in football but is now a diehard AFCB fan. Sadly due to illness neither of us get to games any more but the love still flows between us and AFCB in a three way affair!
:love1::utc:
 
Wonderful post. Great thing about football is we don’t whether we will be in the Europa cup in 4 seasons or in L2. Not many fans face that sort of excitement!

Like Redharry, I just try to enjoy the ride. I won’t shed a tear though if we get relegated from the prem and revert back to historic levels. The cherries will remain the club I support and I don’t care if other people look down on me as a result. At present there is still a kudos about being an Afcb fan - Afcb are a very popular team except for a few clubs.
 
Great peice of writing by Kirsikka, very personal and illuminating!

My years go back further but a few gaps due to Time at Sea.
All the periods had their Magic moments....but none as good as this obviously.
Somehow the Mecca - like draw of walking across Kings Park and past the Cricket Pavillion as ten year old just stayed with me. A massive backdrop at the time was the stories of the 57 Cup Run handed down from fathers etc.
The Psyche built up to what I thought was a peak under Harry in the late 80s after the earlier Cup win over Manu but then we hung in there through some Dire years, but that somehow added its bit in terms of loyalty!

And Then: Whoosh.. along comes a Dream Maker!

Dont cry for me Bristol Rovers!

We are a Unique Club.....now World Famous!
 
Really enjoyed the post Kirsikka. As a newbie, I learn a lot from something like this, Rob Trent's "On this Day ... ", BTK's musings and so many others. Often sends me to my AFCB library to get context. I can relate to much of what you say when I think about the professional sports teams that I follow over here. If you guys do pursue Al's suggestion about writing these type of retrospectives during the summer, I may try one from my history .... likely the Montreal Canadiens.
 
Lovely eloquent posting KS, probably describing better than most of us can how we all feel about football and our special team.
Love of the Cherries and the game itself runs through our lives like a golden thread, and in your case it's really nice to hear that your loyalty helped you to find something very special in your personal life as well. Thanks for taking the time to set out your feelings like that, and here's hoping you actually get to see the boys on the pitch a bit more in the future, rather than having to make do with seeing them on a screen.
 
The Italians use the word passione in a slightly different way than Brits. It is like a life force that courses through everything they truly consider important to their very soul. I believe Kirsikka has very eloquently described the emotional charge most on here feel. I know I do. Through thick or thin the Cherries have given me a reason to explore the full bandwidth of my emotions. And I love it! Passione!
 
I can absolutely identify with everything you say Kirsikka. AFCB has been one of the main axis of my life ever since I went to my first match as a 12 year old in 1978. Having left the area 25 years ago it has been the thread that has kept me connected to my best mates who remained in the area and our occasional get togethers nearly always revolve around a match, often in some far flung northern outpost that they would never visit otherwise. All four of my kids are AFCB fans, two of them pretty fanatical, despite never or only briefly having lived in the area. Our Whatsapp group chats whenever The Cherries are playing, and especially playing are a constant reminder of my successful indoctrinations! I have no doubt that many people I've met in my life, scattered all around the country will remember me first and foremost for being an AFCB fan. And I'm happy with that!
 
Superb posts, thank you.

I am not far off the same as Kirsikka I think. I did see a game around 1973 as a mascot but only seriously started going around the 82/83 season. Same again, I always felt that I would be forever following a lower league team [ and had my 'big team' as Liverpool as I thought they would never play each other! ]. Felt strange enough to get promoted to Division Two!

But I was also of the view that I was quite lucky to support lower league football, I always felt it to be more 'real' when you did it for the love of the club rather than always expecting a trophy. Even now, I see fans of the usual big six kicking off if they fail to win something big every season and think they don't know how good they actually have it.

I do think we can stay here for a few seasons yet but will always be one of about 14 teams that *could* go down each year too. I still have to pinch myself that we are a solid PL team and still view us as underdogs overall. Also never totally confident of winning any game, which comes from years and years of often not winning!

It could be a strange feeling for the teenagers supporting us in the last five or so seasons, if we did get relegated. Older fans may knowingly shrug our shoulders but they would find it all a bit weird! I actually don't think relegation would necessarily lead us back to League Two though, I think enough people would want to be involved with the club or play for us that we could remain a team that could get back up again.

Either way....as with you all...if we ever did drop right back down, I'd still be a fan and I may even be able to get a ticket by then!
 

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