Bournemouth have secured European football after finishing the season with a sensational 18-game unbeaten run.
The Cherries have been a joy to watch during the second half of the campaign and will be playing UEFA Europa League next season after a run of results that have proved they can compete at the very highest level.
The brink of extinction & 17-point deduction
Qualifying for Europe is an achievement that any club of Bournemouth's size would be proud of, but the magnificence of the feat is multiplied when taking into account what position the Cherries were in just shy of 20 years ago.
The 2007/08 was unimaginably bleak for the South Coast outfit, both on and off the pitch.
Bournemouth, managed by Kevin Bond, were already experiencing a tough campaign in the third tier when they were forced into administration in February 2008 and subsequently handed a 10-point deduction that put them in relegation trouble.
While the off-field uncertainty continued, the Cherries put together a seven-game unbeaten run to end the League One campaign. Albeit impressive, it was not enough to secure survival and they were relegated to the fourth tier.
Bournemouth's involvement in the 2008/09 League Two campaign was placed into doubt when the EFL threatened to block their participation, before eventually allowing them to compete with a 17-point deduction.
Jimmy Quinn took the reins in September after Bond was sacked in the early stages of the season, but he too would depart and Eddie Howe was hired in December 2008.
Against all odds, Bournemouth overcame a 17-point deduction to secure survival and avoid a catastrophic drop to the National League.
They finished 21st in the standings and 10 points above Chester City in 23rd, winning seven of their final 11 League Two games to retain their EFL status.
It had been a dismal 18 months or so for fans of the South Coast outfit, but June 2009 marked light at the end of the tunnel as a consortium including Adam Murray completed the takeover of the club.
The impact of Eddie Howe
After securing survival in the 2008/09 term, Howe led Bournemouth to promotion in his first full season in charge at the Vitality Stadium.
The Cherries finished second in the standings with 83 points, and the manager's success was starting to be recognised by clubs higher up the English football pyramid.
On 16th January 2011, Championship outfit Burnley appointed Howe on a three-and-a-half-year contract, but the Amersham-born coach would return to Bournemouth just shy of two years later due to personal reasons.
Former Bournemouth striker Lee Bradbury was hired to succeed Howe and, while he led Bournemouth to the League One play-offs in 2010/11, he was sacked in the latter stages of 2011/12 after failing to lead Bournemouth to another promotion challenge.
He was replaced by youth team coach Paul Groves for a short period, and, in retrospect, the return of Howe in October 2012 marked a monumental moment in the club's history.
Not only did he pull the club away from their early-season relegation battle, Howe led the Cherries to promotion from League One in 2012/13, finishing second with 83 points, the same tally that earned them promotion from the fourth tier in 2009/2010.
The Cherries then enjoyed a successful 2013/14 campaign, which marked their first season in the second tier of English football since 1990, finishing in 10th place and just six points shy of the play-off spots.
Bournemouth endured a six-game winless run towards the start of 2024/25, but Howe oversaw an upturn in form and the Cherries sat near the top of the Championship standings for the majority of the campaign.
Bournemouth concluded the season with a 13-game unbeaten run in the league, beating Fulham 5-1, Middlesbrough 3-0 and Brighton 2-0 in this period, and a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on the final day was enough to secure a sensational promotion to the top-flight.
Howe kept Bournemouth up in 2015/16, their first ever season in the top tier of English football, following the campaign with 9th, 12th and 14th place finishes as the Cherries soon established themselves as Premier League regulars.
The 2019/20 campaign, however, saw Bournemouth relegated from the Premier League with 34 points, and Howe opted to leave the club by mutual consent to bring the curtain down on what had been a remarkable near eight-year spell at the Vitality Stadium.
A return to the top-flight
While the Cherries suffered an agonising play-off defeat under Jonathan Woodgate, Scott Parker would take over and lead the club on a magnificent 15-game unbeaten run that culminated in automatic promotion back to the to-flight.
Things soon turned sour under Parker however and a record-equalling 9-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield resulted in him being dismissed after just four games of the season.
Gary O'Neil was the next man tasked with keeping the Cherries in the top tier and he experienced great success at the Vitality Stadium before beign relieved of
The revolutionary appointment of Andoni Iraola
While Bournemouth had embarked on an incredible journey over the last decade or so, it was the appointment of Andoni Iraola that enabled them to take the club to the next level.
While his impact was certainly not immediate as Bournemouth began the 2023/24 season with a nine-game winless run, there was no looking back once Iraola got a first victory under his belt.
The club would go and finish the season in 12th and record a best-ever top-flight points tally in the process, only to beat that tally 12 months later and finish comfortably in the top half.
While Iraola's Bournemouth have been a hugely entertaining watch throughout, it is during the second half of the campaign where they have reached their full potential and made history along the way.
Despite confirmation Iraola will be leaving the South Coast at the end of the season, Bournemouth have enjoyed a sensational 18-game unbeaten run that has included victories over Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle and Tottenham to secure European football for their first time since the club was formed in 1899.
