Predicted finish: 12th
Last season: 6th
Prospects and Bournemouth Europa League ambitions
Bournemouth Europa League participation changes the equation for a club that surged to a top-six finish last term. On the day after the season ended, outgoing head coach Andoni Iraola spent hours at the club’s training base speaking with his successor, Marco Rose, about the squad and style of play, according to club figures. The exchange underlined the mutual respect between the two coaches. Iraola has previously praised Rose’s Borussia Mönchengladbach sides for their vertical approach that earned Champions League qualification in his first season there.
Rose acknowledges that Iraola set a formidable standard, steering Bournemouth through more than £250m of sales and still securing European football. The team did not lose a match after Antoine Semenyo departed in early January. “Andoni didn’t leave a lot of space to improve. Pressure’s on,” Rose said during pre-season in Austria.
Rose told the players in his opening session that he admired last season’s front-foot approach. The Europa League is unfamiliar territory for a club that was in the Championship four years ago, so Bournemouth have consulted counterparts at Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest on managing the Thursday-Sunday cycle. Rose is close to Oliver Glasner, now at Forest after winning the Conference League with Palace. “We are not going to Europe just to enjoy, we want to be competitive,” Rose said.
Unlike last summer, Bournemouth have so far kept their core intact, including Alex Scott, Rayan and Eli Junior Kroupi. Kroupi, 20, hit double figures in his debut Premier League campaign and drew strong interest from Paris Saint-Germain, but he suffered a freak foot injury in pre-season and is out for at least three months.
Recruitment targeted a centre-back to replace Marcos Senesi and a striker to compete with Evanilson. By early August, Bournemouth had added Álvaro Rodríguez, a forward Rose had sought at Leipzig, and António Silva from Elche and Benfica respectively. Juanlu Sánchez arrived from Sevilla to push Adam Smith, who enters his 14th season, and to cover the absence of Álex Jiménez, who joined Fiorentina on loan with an option to buy while he remains suspended in England during an FA investigation.
Off-field picture
Vitality Stadium, the Premier League’s smallest, has been under renovation to meet Uefa requirements for Bournemouth Europa League nights. The 11,357-capacity ground is having every seat replaced, with two corners being filled to add around 800 seats this season. European football also brings Uefa’s squad cost ratio rules, which cap on-pitch spending at 70% of revenue. Bournemouth ended 2025-26 at 82% and are working toward compliance. In a boost for the pathway, the academy was upgraded to category one status last month, up from category three four years ago.
Owner-fan relationship
Owner Bill Foley once called himself a dictator after taking over nearly four years ago, yet supporters credit his clear ambition. The U.S. billionaire, who built his wealth in insurance, said in 2023 that Bournemouth would reach Europe within five years. They did it in three. He delivered similarly with the Vegas Golden Knights, who won the Stanley Cup in their sixth season after launch. Foley has expanded his multi-club network to include Lorient, Auckland FC, Moreirense and, most recently, rugby union’s Exeter Chiefs. Not all calls please everyone, but Foley, who turns 82 in December and splits time between California and Las Vegas, continues to invest heavily.
The manager
Marco Rose’s playing career included stints under Jürgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel at Mainz and Ralf Rangnick at Hannover before he began coaching at Lokomotive Leipzig. Klopp told him after Mainz’s 2004 promotion that coaching would suit him, and Rose has since led squads featuring Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham at Borussia Dortmund and Dominik Szoboszlai and Dani Olmo at RB Leipzig. His high-energy ideas invite comparisons with Klopp and, naturally, Iraola. Bournemouth thumped Genoa 10-1 in pre-season. When asked if his approach would be even more aggressive than Iraola’s, he said that would be difficult. Rose’s grandfather, Walter Rose, played for Germany in 1937.
Star signing
Transfer fees for top defenders hover around £50m, with Tottenham paying £52m for Jan Paul van Hecke and Chelsea matching that for Maxence Lacroix from Crystal Palace. Bournemouth received £50m from Real Madrid for Dean Huijsen via a release clause last year. Against that backdrop, the £25.7m deal for António Silva looks astute. The 22-year-old has been a regular at Benfica, has Champions League and Europa League experience and 20 Portugal caps. Right footed but comfortable on the left side of central defence, he is a straight replacement for Senesi and could be a value cornerstone.
Stat attack
Bournemouth struck nine goals from Opta-defined counterattacks last season, tied for the most in the Premier League. They were potent from dead balls too, with 14 set-piece goals, a tally exceeded in only two of their previous eight top-flight campaigns. Few teams combine those threats so effectively.
Set for a breakthrough
Ben Gannon-Doak endured a mixed night when Scotland sealed a first World Cup in 28 years, departing after 21 minutes before Kenny McLean rounded off the scoring. Signed from Liverpool for £25m last August, the 20-year-old featured in all three of Scotland’s World Cup matches, starting the first and the last, and has impressed in pre-season. After just 113 league minutes across eight substitute outings last term, there is belief he can make a sustained impact.
World Cup impact
Rayan became the first Brazilian teenager to start a World Cup match since Marco Antônio in 1970 when Carlo Ancelotti named him for the Group C win over Scotland, in which he assisted Vinícius Júnior for the opener before swapping shirts with Gannon-Doak. Tyler Adams enhanced his reputation as the USA reached the last 16. Two recent coaching hires also had World Cup roles. Set-piece coach Nicolas Gagnon worked with Canada and goalkeeping coach Frederic de Boever with Belgium. Alex Scott’s involvement in Thomas Tuchel’s pre-World Cup training camp in Florida further underlined the midfielder’s rising profile.
For more on the historic connections between Brazilian football and the UK, read How Charles Miller Brazil link began in Southampton.