Fifteen years ago to the day, Bournemouth lost 2-1 at home to Bury. They were 21st in the third tier with 12 points from 14 games, and later that season they would also lose away at Bury, Rochdale and Oldham. On Thursday night the same club hosts AC Milan in the Europa League.
"I'm pinching myself," says Kirk Tovey of the Cherries Red Army fan channel. "It's not long ago we were playing Oldham Athletic and Hartlepool United in League One. Now I'm about to watch us play AC Milan. It's absolute madness."
From bucket collections to a European home tie
The climb is well documented and still barely believable. Bournemouth faced liquidation in 2008, finished 21st in League Two the following season, and reached the Premier League in 2015. This is their first season in Europe and they have won both of their opening Europa League games.
Joe Partington, who played in that defeat by Bury and now summarises for BBC Radio Solent, remembers what the operation looked like. Players got changed in one part of Bournemouth, drove somewhere else to train, then drove somewhere else again for lunch. "We used to train on the park over from the stadium," he says. "Now fans walk through the park to watch European games."
Tony Pulis, who played in Bournemouth's defence and then managed the club from 1992 to 1994, still lives nearby. "Over the last decade, my hometown club has achieved dreamland," he told BBC Sport. He points to the training facility built under American owner Bill Foley, who completed his takeover in 2022, and to a first-team group that he says runs itself into the ground every week.
The hottest ticket the Vitality has had
Last week's 3-0 win over Sturm Graz drew 12,070, the highest attendance at the ground this century, and work is under way to expand what is still the smallest stadium in the Premier League. Another 12,000-plus will squeeze in for Milan, and plenty of supporters have already given up and settled for the television. Tovey's niece did not have enough points to get a ticket.
The visitors are fourth in Serie A with 15 points from seven games, four behind Inter, and are managed by former Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim. Nineteen years have passed since their last European Cup and four since their last Scudetto. "This is not the AC Milan of Kaka, Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Filippo Inzaghi or Clarence Seedorf," Tovey says. "But they are still seven-time champions of Europe."
The red and black connection
There is a thread between the two clubs that most Bournemouth supporters know by heart. In the early 1970s, manager John Bond swapped the traditional cherry-red shirts for red and black stripes as a nod to Milan's dominance in Europe, and in 1972 the club renamed itself AFC Bournemouth partly to sound more continental and partly to sit above Arsenal at the top of the alphabetical league list.
Luka Modric, now 41 and a starter in five Milan matches this season, is expected to feature. He played at Dean Court before, lining up for Real Madrid in a 6-0 pre-season win in 2013 in which Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who joined Milan in 2023, told BBC Radio Solent that Bournemouth belong in the Premier League and that the fixture is a great spectacle. Bournemouth's recent form is better than their opponents' reputation suggests, and with that crowd behind them a draw feels like the fair call, though I would not be surprised by a home win.
Match context: Bournemouth v AC Milan, Vitality Stadium, Europa League, Thursday 22 October 2026, 20:00 BST. Bournemouth have won both of their opening group-phase games, including 3-0 against Sturm Graz in front of 12,070. The club is 127 years old and in its first European campaign. Prediction in the final paragraph is this site's own.
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