Guardian writers’ predicted position: 12th (NB: this is not necessarily Ben Fisher’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 6th
Prospects
It was the day after the final game of last season at Bournemouth’s secluded, swish training base and, before clearing his belongings on his last day in the building, the departing head coach, Andoni Iraola, spent a couple of hours in his office chewing the fat with his successor, Marco Rose, talking players, pubs and tactics. The story goes that, with time moving on, Tiago Pinto, the club’s sporting director, knocked on the door to advise them there were other things to tackle.
It was an interesting scenario that speaks volumes of the respect between the pair. Long before joining Bournemouth, Iraola cited Rose’s Borussia Mönchengladbach side as one of his favourite teams to watch, the German’s “vertical football” helping them qualify for the Champions League in Rose’s first season in charge.
Rose accepts that Iraola, in absorbing the sales of key players totalling more than £250m last season and qualifying for Europe for the first time, has set a high bar. Remarkably, Bournemouth did not lose a game after the sale of Antoine Semenyo in the second week of January. Rose put it succinctly during pre-season in Austria. “Andoni didn’t leave a lot of space to improve,” he said. “Pressure’s on.”
In his first session, Rose told the players he loved the way they attacked the Premier League last season. Playing in the Europa League, however, represents uncharted territory for a team in the second tier as recently as four years ago. It is why Bournemouth’s hierarchy contacted peers at Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest to understand the realities of juggling the Thursday-Sunday rhythm the competition will bring. Rose is close friends with Oliver Glasner, who is now at Forest, but won the Conference League last season with Palace. “We are not going to Europe just to enjoy, we want to be competitive,” Rose said. “We are not there just to watch.”
Unlike last summer, so far they have retained all key players, chiefly Alex Scott, Rayan and Eli Junior Kroupi, the 20-year-old forward who breezed into double figures in his debut Premier League season and the club consider a generational talent. Kroupi attracted serious interest from Paris Saint-Germain, among other European superpowers, but a freak foot injury during a pre-season drill means he is sidelined for at least three months.
At the end of the season, Bournemouth earmarked a centre-back to replace Marcos Senesi and a striker to compete with Evanilson as key priorities and by the start of August the club had recruited Álvaro Rodríguez, whom Rose wanted to sign at Leipzig, and António Silva from Elche and Benfica respectively. Juanlu Sánchez joined from Sevilla to provide competition for Adam Smith, the evergreen 35-year-old into his 14th season at the club, and will also fill the void left by Álex Jiménez, who has joined Fiorentina on loan with an option to sign permanently because he remains suspended in England while under investigation by the Football Association.
Off-field picture
The smallest stadium in the Premier League has been a building site this summer, with the club working to ensure their 11,357-seater ground complies with Uefa regulations. There has been a wider facelift, too, with every seat being replaced, while they are filling in two corners to increase the capacity by 800 this season. Playing in Europe brings the challenge of meeting Uefa’s squad-cost ratio (SCR) rules, which caps on-pitch spending at 70% of a club’s revenue. Bournemouth finished the 2025-26 season at 82% and they continue to work towards meeting the threshold. Last month the academy was awarded category one status, four years after being category three.
Owner-fan relationship
The American billionaire Bill Foley described himself as a dictator upon buying the club approaching four years ago, but supporters are grateful for his naked ambition. Foley, who made his fortune in insurance, is forthright and somewhat prophetic. In 2023, he said the club would play in Europe within five years – and achieved it in three. It was a similar story with Vegas Golden Knights, whom he vowed would win the Stanley Cup within six years of him launching the ice hockey franchise in 2017 – they won it in their sixth season. Foley recently added rugby union’s Exeter Chiefs to his sporting stable, which extends to Lorient, Auckland FC and Moreirense. Not every decision is universally popular but Foley, who turns 82 in December and predominantly splits his time between California and Vegas, puts his money where his mouth is.
The manager
As a defender, Marco Rose was schooled by Jürgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel at Mainz, and Ralf Rangnick at Hannover, so had quite the education before beginning his coaching career at home town club Lokomotive Leipzig. Klopp told Rose, after promotion to the Bundesliga in 2004, that he would excel in the dugout and he has since managed some of the biggest names: Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham at Borussia Dortmund, Dominik Szoboszlai and Dani Olmo at RB Leipzig. Rose has been compared to Klopp and, naturally, Iraola, given his appetite for high-energy tactics. Bournemouth routed Genoa 10-1 in pre-season so, could his style be even more aggressive than Iraola’s? “I would say [to be] even more aggressive than Andoni is quite difficult,” came the reply. His grandfather, Walter Rose, represented Germany in 1937.
Star signing
These days, £50m is about the going rate for an elite defender. Tottenham paid £52m to sign Jan Paul van Hecke. Chelsea paid the same fee to take Maxence Lacroix from Crystal Palace. Bournemouth pocketed £50m when Dean Huijsen joined Real Madrid last year, though that price was set by a release clause. They are deals that make Bournemouth’s £25.7m purchase of António Silva, a 22-year-old who has been a regular at Benfica since breaking into the team and has experience in the Champions League, Europa League and 20 caps for Portugal, appear a snip. Silva, who is right-footed but prefers to play as a left-centre back, is a direct replacement for Senesi.
Stat attack
Bournemouth scored nine goals from Opta-defined counterattacks last season, the joint most in the Premier League. But their threat was varied; in only two of their preceding eight top-flight campaigns did they score more set-piece goals than the 14 they managed in 2025-26. It is very rare for a team to be so productive on both fronts.
Set for a breakthrough
It was a November night of ecstasy when Scotland qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years, but for Ben Gannon-Doak it was a bittersweet evening and one that curtailed his club season. The 20-year-old was forced off after 21 minutes, replaced by Kenny McLean who capped the scoring in style. A £25m arrival from Liverpool last August, Gannon-Doak featured in all three of Scotland’s World Cup matches, starting the first and last, and has impressed in pre-season. After being limited to 113 minutes in eight league appearances as a substitute last campaign, there is optimism Gannon-Doak will make his mark.
World Cup impact
Rayan became the first Brazilian teenager to start a World Cup match since Marco Antônio in 1970 when he was named in Carlo Ancelotti’s starting XI for their Group C game against Scotland. The then 19-year-old, signed from Vasco de Gama in January, set up Vinícius Júnior for Brazil’s opener in the 3-0 win and afterwards swapped shirts with Gannon-Doak. Tyler Adams enhanced his reputation, impressing for the USA en route to the last 16. Two new members of Bournemouth’s coaching staff, the set-piece coach, Nicolas Gagnon, and goalkeeping coach, Frederic de Boever, worked with Canada and Belgium respectively. Alex Scott’s inclusion in Tuchel’s pre-World Cup training camp in Florida spoke volumes of the Guernsey-born midfielder’s wider standing.
