Bournemouth close to Premier League dream

Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe is all smiles with his side close to promotion to the Premier League

Championship Bournemouth claimed a 1-0 victory at strugglers Reading on Tuesday night.

A fourth minute strike from top scorer Calum Wilson was enough to give the Cherries maximum points. The goal was Wilson’s 22nd of the season.

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Eddie Howe’s team currently sit top of the Championship table with just three games remaining.

However the table is very tight with just two points separating the Cherries from third-place Middlesbrough in the table.

Play-offs

The victory over the Royals meant that the Cherries are at least guaranteed a place in the Championship play-offs. Bournemouth have been in the top six for much of the season and it is a major achievement for the club from Dorset.

Boss

The Cherries young boss Eddie Howe has done a superb job with the Cherries in both his stints in charge at Dean Court. Last season Howe guided his team to a tenth place finish in the Championship, after winning promotion to the second tier the previous season.

It seems that Eddie Howe and Bournemouth are a match made in heaven. The rookie boss seems to have the Midas touch with the Cherries and his reputation as a highly-rated young boss continues to grow.

His short unsuccessful stint as Burnley boss has now been largely forgotten and no doubt Howe is probably a better manager for experiencing those lows at Turf Moor.

Some bosses and clubs just go well together. Eddie Howe and Bournemouth seems to be one of those cases. At 37-years-old he is one of the youngest bosses in the football league, but already he has achieved two promotions in his short managerial career.

The former-club stalwart has his team playing some fantastic attacking, passing football. In fact his teams tally of 90 goals this season is the highest of any team in the top four divisions of English football and the Cherries have only failed to find the net in four games this season.

Howe has been linked with moves to Premier League clubs in the past few years, but is likely to be cautious about his future after his ill-fated move to Burnley.

He may not need to move clubs to manage in the Premier League though, as his club look good for promotion to the top-flight this season.

Fairytale

It would be like a fairytale if Bournemouth were promoted to the Premier League. The Cherries have never played top-flight football and in fact until recently had only ever played second tier football once.

It was Howe who guided the Cherries to their second stint in the second tier of English football in season 2012/13. Dean Court’s capacity of around 12,000 tells you all you need to know about the size of the club.

By the size of club they could very well be the smallest club to ever play Premier League football.

Promotion would be a major achievement for everybody involved in the Dorset club and most Cherries fans would probably only ever dreamt of watching their team play top-flight football.

Mixture

Eddie Howe has assembled what seems to be the just the right mix of young up and coming players and more experienced professionals such as Artur Boruc, who is on-loan from Premier League Southampton.

Howe also seems to have got the best out of the likes of Calum Wilson, Matt Ritchie and Harry Arter. All three had failed to impress under other bosses, but under Howe have excelled and started fulfilling their potential.

The rookie boss seems to have a team full of players that like playing for him and that has shown in their superb results this season and the exciting style of play.

Tight

The race for automatic promotion is a tight one. Norwich, Middlesbrough and Watford are all still in with a chance of making the top two this season. However, Bournemouth are now 1/10 favourites to claim a place in the Premier League next season.

Those odds are based on the fact the Cherries face midtable Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton, as well as facing struggling Bolton before the end of the campaign.

That run of fixtures looks like a kind one for the Cherries and if they do indeed achieve promotion to the Premier League it will be one of the sporting stories of this year.

Will Bournemouth win promotion to the Premier League?