Top tier survival strategy

#1 Trust your squad

Bournemouth's Surman, Smith, Daniels, Francis and Arter have been with the Club since their days in the lower divisions

Bournemouth FC was promoted to the Premier League in 2015. The club survived the first season in the league and finished in the top half of the league in the 2016-17 season.

Many football pundits praised the club for the exponential rise in such a short time. But what was the reason for Bournemouth’s success story? Upon analysis, we can see the club has certain players in their current starting eleven that were part of the team when the club was struggling in the lower divisions of the Football League.

Captain Simon Francis, Steve Cook, Harry Arter, Charlie Daniels, Andrew Surman, Callum Wilson and Marc Pugh were part of the club since the days of their struggle in the lower tiers while Adam Smith, Dan Gosling and Arthur Boruc were part of their Championship winning season.

These players are still in the squad and some of them are even the regular starters. With players having experienced the struggles in the lower divisions with the club, they are more concerned towards the survival of their club at the top tier.

This makes them give their cent percent on the pitch day in day out. On the other hand, Middleborough bought an entire team of top players like Alvaro Nagredo and Victor Valdes yet failed to survive in the first season.