The long read: Charlie Daniels

With football being such an intense profession, how important is it to have something like golf to play in your free time?

It’s nice, it’s a release from football, something different in which you can still be competitive. For me it’s a release from everything. You see how quiet it is around the course and it’s nice to walk around and get away from things for a few hours and recharge.

You do still have to be sensible though, if you’re playing at the start of the week you use a buggy but if you play on a Sunday after the match it can actually be beneficial to go for a walk to get your legs back.

How did you get into golf?

It was through my dad, he was a keen golfer and probably once a week we would go down to the local range and practice, then there was a par-three course we’d go to, I learned how to play and it progressed from there really.

These days I don’t play as often as I’d like, that comes with playing throughout the season, playing games week-in, week-out so you don’t get the time to play a lot. I’ve played many times at Remedy Oak and Parkstone, they’re probably the two main places that I go.

There are a few in the squad who also play. Smudge is good, Goso tries, Steve Cook, Asmir play. Tyrone was having lessons and Surs plays, there’s a good few of us. During pre-season, there was a pitch and putt there and you could see how competitive the lads get, it was good fun and we actually had a really enjoyable afternoon.

You’re using different muscles in golf, have you ever pulled anything and then had to keep that a secret from the manager?

Not yet! I’ve been fortunate, even though I’ve seen many players hack it around – they’ve not pulled anything either but they’ve had a good go.

Are you willing to divulge your handicap?

It ranges from eight to ten depending how often I’ve been playing. That’s not bad, if I practiced a bit more it would probably be a bit lower.

Have you managed to have a round with anyone you’ve particularly enjoyed playing with?

Actually, I missed the chance to play with Beef (Andrew Johnston) recently, A mate of mine had texted me and asked if I could make but I had something on and was a bit gutted about that, that would have been a highlight.

I have been to a couple of PGAs, walked round and just watched the pros, how they hit and how far they hit it – the ease with how they hit the ball is great to watch and something you aspire to do. It’s how effortlessly they swing, they create so much power through the clubhead with the ball rocketing off, the control they have over the ball is a big thing.

After all the pre-season build-up how good is it now to get started and against Cardiff to finally…

Finally, it was finally! It was a nice feeling because we haven’t won on the opening day. This pre-season we did things a little bit differently, tweaked a few things and that showed in our performance. Going into the game we were a lot more ready and that showed in the way we pressed and counter attacked, with the amount of chances we created it was a lot more front foot which is what we expect from a Bournemouth side.

Then you could finally relax for an evening at least…

Yeah, it’s always nice after a win. You can relax a bit more, you’re happier around your family and it becomes a great day all round.

A lot of the squad often talk about getting the recovery spot on, what exactly does that mean after a game?

We have recovery sessions on Mondays for the people who played. We start off with a meeting about the game, dissecting what happened and looking at little points where we did well or need to improve.

Then everyone goes outside and we gently warm up, do a mobility circuit before splitting into boxes to do some ball drills. Then the team that started go inside and have an uppers session in the gym.

Next we go into the pool for a session, we call it ‘the contrast’ where we go between the hot bath and the cold bath. Three minutes hot, one minute cold, four or five times. Then we go for a rub, get a message. That’s basically a recovery day for us.

When you compare the recovery now to how it was when you were in League One, how differently does your body feel?

I was a lot younger then! When you’re younger you can, not get away with it, but your body does respond differently. There were ice baths, but they were paddling pools with ice cold water in. That was basically it, you sat in it for five minutes after a game or after training and that was your recovery.

You got a shake too, but at Leyton Orient it was a Yazoo, a milkshake like you get at Tesco. Budgets were tighter, but now we get specialised shakes with all our nutrients, proteins and everything – we’ve come a long way.

We’ve all played six-a-side games and woken up with aches in all sorts of places, how is that different after a Premier League game?

That’s what pre-season is for, you get robust to it. You have to build your body up to the demands that you need in the Premier League.

Sometimes you do get a bit achy if you get knocked about but generally if you had another game on Tuesday you’d be fine and ready to go.

That’s another sizeable change from the Football League to the Premier League, going from 46 to 38 games…

That is a big difference. I actually liked it, I think a lot of footballers do, because you tailor down the training in the lower league and you have one day, sometimes not even that, to prepare for the next game.

For us in the Premier League it’s good to get the training days in and you build up to the next game, so it works both ways, but footballers being footballers, you just want to play games.

This summer Diego Rico has come in, how does the arrival of new players push you forwards?

We’ve signed a lot of left-backs over the years, so it’s something I’ve been used to. I can only affect myself, prove myself and help the team. If the gaffer chooses Diego for games I’m not going to kick up a fuss because I’ve been here for so long, played so many games and have played near enough every game when I’ve been fit, so I feel very lucky.

I like to think that’s down to hard work, as well as loyalty from the gaffer. If someone else plays I’ll be behind them, but I’m not going to give up my place easily.

It’s also part of a footballer’s life, players constantly coming and going.

That’s why I feel I’ve been lucky, I’ve seen many players come and go so being in my place for eight years I’ve been very fortunate and hopefully that continues.

Has it surprised you that a large group of the same players has stayed together from League One all the way to the Premier League?

It’s a testament to the players, we’ve had to graft to improve. The gaffer says the club’s not going to sit still so we’ve had to progress along with the club.

We’ve had to improve from League One to the Championship and then we’ve had to vastly improve from the Championship to the Premier League.

We’ve enjoyed every second of it and we love playing at this level. The test for us now is to stay playing here for as long as possible.

During the journey have you ever felt a ceiling to what the club can achieve?

Not yet. When we went to the Championship after the first season we were disappointed. We finished tenth but wanted to get in the play-offs.

Then the next season we got to halfway and realised there weren’t any teams better than us. We felt that and going forwards we knew we could win it. We probably didn’t anticipate how it ended though, and at the Valley it was a great day, especially when we heard all the fans cheering around the 80th minute, that was a special moment in a great day.

It was noticeable ahead of the season, Bournemouth don’t often get mentioned in the relegation talk these days.

We’ve got a strong squad now, probably the strongest we’ve had. We’re always trying to progress, with the signings we’ve got in with Diego, Jefferson and Brooksy as well, they’re hungry players and good players too. We can now attract these kind of players.

I’m sure I can guess the answer to this question, but is there ever any danger of the manager letting the intensity drop?

What do you think? No, no, no, definitely not. It was so intense for us this pre-season, one of the hardest we’ve done. The tweaks made it harder but also more beneficial for us as players and we’ve noticed that, and hopefully we can turn that into a good season.

How does your life change when you move from being a Championship player to a Premier League player?

There’s a lot more media coverage, that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed, it’s a lot more intense. It can work both ways, it can be a great thing and a bad thing, you just have to control it and not let it affect you, especially in a negative way.

That sounds like the same way the manager behaves, finding the right balance.
That’s something you see at our club, we could get carried away and spend millions on everything but not take the time to improve the squad, finding the balance through the whole club has been really good.