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Forget Keysian theory - There is a next level for Cherries

Richard Keys once tweeted that Cherries should accept their lot, play pragmatic football, and hope to remain a bottom-half Premier League team for the rest of time. But fortunately, no one at AFC Bournemouth listened.

09.11.26, 16:59 6 Minute Read

There isn’t a ‘next level’. This is it. There is no more.

Such infamous, definitive words from Richard Keys, now immortalised onto a flag traipsed around the continent as Cherries take the Europa League by storm.

Gary O’Neil’s sacking in the summer of 2023 led to similar cries from football luminaries such as Chris Sutton, Jamie Carragher and Martin Keown.

It turns out that there was another level for AFC Bournemouth under Andoni Iraola.

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Jack Tanner

Starting his journalism career covering local non-league football at the age of 14, Dorset-native Jack Tanner covered Cherries for the Bournemouth Daily Echo for the best part of four years. After a brief stint covering AFC Bournemouth on a freelance basis for national newspapers, Jack went on to cover boxing for The Independent.

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