From Bury to AC Milan: Bournemouth's journey to 'dreamland'

“I’m pinching myself,” says Bournemouth fan Kirk Tovey.

“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.

Fifteen years to the day after Bournemouth lost 2-1 at home to Bury in the third tier of English football, the Cherries host seven-time champions of Europe AC Milan in the Europa League on Thursday (20:00 BST).

It is a game between the club that refused to die against the 11-time European Cup finalists on what promises to be a momentous night in the history of the 127-year-old Dorset club.

“Over the last decade, my hometown club has achieved dreamland,” Tony Pulis, who played in Bournemouth’s defence before managing them from 1992-94 and still lives in the area, tells BBC Sport.

“It’s an unbelievable story, when I think back to what the club was like when I was player, coach and then manager there in the 1980s and early 1990s, but one that hopefully just keeps going.”

Bournemouth’s troubled past and their subsequent climb up the leagues is well documented – from bucket collections and facing liquidation as recently as 2008 to finishing 21st in League Two in 2008-09 and winning promotion to the Premier League in 2015.

Now an established top-flight side, Bournemouth are making their debut season in Europe, looking to topple one of European football’s great clubs.

“We used to train on the park over from the stadium,” says Joe Partington, who played in midfield for Bournemouth in League One and League Two after coming through the academy, and is now BBC Radio Solent’s regular Cherries summariser.

“Now fans walk through the park to watch European games.”

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AC Milan’s last Champions League triumph came in 2007 when they beat Liverpool in the final in Athens [Getty Images]

On this day in 2011, Bournemouth were 21st in the third tier of English football, with 12 points from 14 games, after losing at home to Bury. Later on that season, they would lose away at Bury, Rochdale and Oldham.

“Back then, we had to get changed in one part of Bournemouth then drive somewhere else to train before driving somewhere else for lunch,” says Partington, who featured in that game against Bury 15 years ago.

Tovey, from the Cherries Red Army fan channel, recalls home crowds of 6,000 around that time.

“As a fan, you could just rock up 10 minutes before kick-off and walk in,” he says.

While Bournemouth’s Vitality stadium is comfortably the smallest in the Premier League in terms of capacity, work is under way to expand it and last week’s attendance figure of 12,070 for the 3-0 Europa League win over Sturm Graz was easily their highest of the 21st century.

Another 12,000-plus will pack in for the visit of an AC Milan team managed by former Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim, with many fans resigned to watching the match on television after missing out on a ticket.

“My niece loves Bournemouth but she’s missed out because she hasn’t got enough points to get a ticket,” adds Tovey. “She’s gutted.”

Pulis has been impressed with the club’s significant progress under the ownership of US billionaire Bill Foley, who completed his takeover in 2022.

“They are now an established Premier League club, with a brand new training facility that can rival most in this country,” he says.

“A top-class academy facility for the boys and girls and a group of first-team players that not only play but run themselves into the ground every game.”

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Bournemouth fan Kirk Tovey (right) with his son Owen outside Bournemouth’s ground [BBC]

AC Milan are fourth in Serie A on 15 points from seven games, four points behind leaders and arch-rivals Inter Milan.

It is 19 years since they were last crowned champions of Europe and four years since they won the last of their 19 Serie A titles.

“They are not the team they used to be,” says Tovey.

“This is not the AC Milan of Kaka, Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Filippo Inzaghi or Clarence Seedorf. But they are still seven-time champions of Europe and they are a massive football club.

“When the draw came out and you looked at the eight teams we were drawn against, AC Milan was the one everyone went ‘wow’.”

Bournemouth, who have won both their opening Europa League games, have hosted European royalty before.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the world’s most expensive footballer when he scored two goals in Real Madrid’s 6-0 pre-season win over the Cherries in 2013 – the club called this a “celebratory exhibition match” after winning promotion to the Championship.

Lining up against Bournemouth that day was Luka Modric, who is expected to feature on Thursday at the age of 41.

Modric, a six-time Champions League winner with Real, has started five matches for AC Milan this season.

“I would love him to be on the pitch so we can say we have seen Modric in a competitive game at Dean Court [Vitality stadium],” Bournemouth fan Chris told BBC Radio 5 Live’s 606 football phone-in.

This is not be the first time AC Milan have visited Bournemouth.

In 2016, the Rossoneri sent a team to play in a testimonial for long-serving Cherries defender Warren Cummings.

“It’s not a charity game or a pre-season friendly,” says Partington. “It’s Bournemouth against AC Milan in a competitive European match.

“People are gobsmacked that this is now a normal thing.”

Bournemouth and AC Milan also share the same colours.

When John Bond was manager of Bournemouth in the early 1970s, he changed their traditional cherry-red shirts to red and black stripes in a nod to Milan’s dominance on the continent during the 1960s.

In another homage to Thursday’s illustrious opposition, the club changed its name in 1972 from Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic to AFC Bournemouth, in an attempt to sound more continental, while taking them to the top of the alphabetical list of League clubs above Arsenal.

“The fact that Bournemouth were inspired by AC Milan shows how big the club is and the history of it,” former Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who joined the Italian club in 2023, tells BBC Radio Solent.

“AC Milan have inspired people to watch football and love football.”

England international Loftus-Cheek adds: “Bournemouth belong in the Premier League and now they’re playing in Europe and get a chance to play AC Milan. It’s a great spectacle for the fans.”

The Cherries and AC Milan might be poles apart in terms of European experience but they are much closer when it comes to recent form.

“We have earned the right to be in the Europa League through hard work and ambition,” says Tovey.

“We might be little old Bournemouth but we absolutely deserve to be playing AC Milan.”

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