AFC Bournemouth
Player development at AFC Bournemouth has come a long way in a short space of time. Just ask Warren Cummings.
As a starry-eyed youngster, Cummings progressed through the much-vaunted youth ranks at Chelsea, earning his first professional contract with the Premier League giants at 18.
At the same time, Joe Roach had just been tasked with trying to resurrect a youth department at AFC Bournemouth which had been disbanded due to cost cutting a few years previously.
Roach, appointed in 2001, had four jobs – youth development, recruitment, education and community officer – and was assisted by a couple of office staff and a small team of part-time coaches.
Now, he heads a thriving academy of which Cummings is lead under-13 coach, a position the popular former Cherries defender started in April 2019.
Cummings, who spent two loan spells with Cherries, made more than 300 appearances for the club between October 2000 and June 2012.
He featured in the 2003 League Two play-off final win over Lincoln at the Millennium Stadium and also helped the club win promotion under Eddie Howe in 2010. He was also named in the PFA League One team of the season in 2004/05.
Discussing his role with afcb.co.uk, Cummings said: “I absolutely love it and my only regret is not doing it sooner. That’s taking nothing away from what I did previously in recruitment which I also thoroughly enjoyed.
“I get a lot out of watching these boys develop. It can be very satisfying when you see someone improve, grow up and mature, not just on the pitch but also as a person.
“When you see it from the other side, you realise how easy it was being a player!
“It’s a pressurised environment and I put pressure on myself to do as well as I can for the boys. We look after them, they are under our supervision and, hopefully, they can get as much out of it as they can.
“When I think back to when I was playing, sometimes you would be very damning towards your manager if you didn’t enjoy a training session. But now the boot is on the other foot, you can see how much time, effort and thought goes into looking after people.
“I remember coming through the centre of excellence at Chelsea when we trained for two nights a week. Nowadays, the boys are here for a full day on a Thursday, they train on other nights and have a games programme on a Sunday.
“It has certainly been a real eye opener for me.”
Asked where he saw himself in five years, Cummings replied: “We have a personal development plan with our head of coaching and one of the areas we cover is short, medium and long-term ambitions. I would be foolish to share what they are.
“I just want to be as good as I can at my current role. If I can do that then one day in the future maybe another role will open up and you can advance.”
Cummings’s former team-mates Shaun Cooper and Alan Connell have both flourished in their respective coaching roles with the Cherries’ under-21s and under-18s and he often watches their sessions to gain further experience.
Asked why he had decided to move into coaching, Cummings said: “I was fortunate throughout my career because my managers were complimentary about me, saying I could take on board what I was being told. They said I could go on to coach but I never got round to it for whatever reason.
“My rationale for getting into it was that I watched close friends grow, not just as coaches but as individuals. I could see how enthused they had become as a result of it and thought I would like to go down that road as well.
“It hasn’t surprised me how much I enjoy it. It’s full-on and I didn’t anticipate it being quite as hard as it is. There are so many different facets of the job that I could never have imagined.
“It’s demanding and hugely satisfying at the same time.”
