AFC Bournemouth
AFC Bournemouth first-team coach Graeme Jones is relishing a return to former club Swansea City and believes both clubs boast Premier League quality in their ranks.
Jones served as Roberto Martinez’s assistant at the Liberty Stadium, the pair guiding the Welsh outfit to the League One title in 2007/08, their first full season.
They left for Premier League Wigan in June 2009 – a club they had enjoyed success at as players – having laid the foundations for the Swans to reach the top flight two years later.
Swansea spent seven successive seasons in the Premier League and twice finished in the top ten before suffering relegation in 2017/18.
Jones, who also worked with Martinez at Everton and with the Belgian national team, joined Jason Tindall’s backroom staff at Vitality Stadium in August.
He told afcb.co.uk: “It was a really positive period, a happy time and a great learning curve, that’s for sure. When I look back, it was something to be really proud of.
“Roberto and myself left a pattern of play there that set up the club for ten years and certainly contributed to them getting to the Premier League.
“Other managers like Paulo Sousa and Brendan Rodgers inherited it and it was established in the lower leagues,
“On the back of success, it was really powerful so it was a great period. My family loved it and I loved it. We had a chance to return home, which for us at that time was Wigan, and took it.
“Looking at Swansea now, I think Steve Cooper has done a really good job. He inherited good players but has added good players as well.
“It’s a very different club to the one that I know. Huw Jenkins and Martin Morgan ran it as chairman and owner when I was there and now the Americans have got it.
“There won’t be a lot of people I know there tomorrow so we’re talking about 11 years and that’s how quickly it changes in football.
“They play a back three, they play lots of different shapes and are a good attacking team. Andre Ayew is a big threat so we will need to be at our best.
“There’s Premier League quality in both teams. I faced Ayew last season as Luton manager and he was a handful. He’s their talisman and is above the level.
“But they’ve got Connor Roberts and Matt Grimes and other good players as well so nothing changes. It’s all about your team and getting your players at their best and that’s what the challenge will be tomorrow.”
Asked how he had found his first few months with the Cherries, Jones replied: “I’m delighted.
“This is my second experience of being involved with a team which has been relegated from the Premier League after West Brom two-and-a-half years ago.
“This is a really healthy football club and Jason and Purchy have done a fantastic job.
“A week ago today, we had been beaten once all season. We lost to Preston and responded really well at Barnsley. We have responded well after both defeats.
“I like the style of play and enjoy working with the boys so it’s onwards and upwards for me!”
Jones and Martinez had the reins at Swansea when the Cherries secured a remarkable 2-1 win at the Liberty Stadium in April 2008.
Ahead of the clash, the Swans were seven points clear at the top and victory would have clinched promotion, while Kevin Bond’s Cherries were nine points adrift of safety having been docked ten for entering administration.
And although Andy Robinson's goal put the Swans on course for promotion, Joe Kuffour's equaliser and Joe Partington's winner, both in stoppage time, earned the Cherries what had seemed like an improbable victory.
“I remember it!” laughed Jones. “Rob Newman was Kevin’s assistant and he’s a good friend of mine.
“I remember looking at the scoreboard and we were winning 1-0 after 90 minutes. Then, when the referee blew the final whistle, we’d lost 2-1.
“You felt like you’d had your throat slashed and been left on the pavement because there was nowhere to go. We got promoted in the end though!”
