Last season was almost the sort of season which makes your average "Great Escape" seem ridiculous. At times they were dead and buried, and things weren't helped by a ten points penalty for entering administration. But a late run, saw them win six out of their last seven games giving them a chance which previously had long since been extinguished. A huge following travelled up to Carlisle with real belief for the first time in months, and so it proved that the ten point penalty had cost them dear as they finished two points below Cheltenham, instead of the 15th place they will feel they should have been in.

On the coaching side of things, he's been around for a few years. He's coached at Man City and has been assistant manager at Portsmouth, Southampton and Newcastle, suggesting that he's got a decent reputation within the game.

He was appointed manager of Bournemouth back in November 2006 and just seemed to be meandering in that position until the aforementioned late run which came so close to keeping them up.

That end few games of the 2007-8 season has given Bournemouth fans real belief about what can be achieved. This side which had been amongst the division's worse all season, all of a sudden became a team of world beaters, becoming without doubt the division's best.

The difference? Well it's been suggested that AFCB manager Kevin Bond stopped trying to get the best from a number of loan signings, and made do with what he had at his disposal, and it worked.

Common sense will say to you that if they can get any sort of form from that run, then they could do something very special indeed. They've already proved themselves (in the short term) to be better than anything in League One. For that alone, League Two should be a walk in the park.

Could this be any more obvious? Last season they were sent down on the back of a ten point deduction. This season, they are looking at a points deduction of between 15 and 20 points and that is before the season has even started.

Whilst no doubt Bournemouth are best equipped to deal with this points deduction than Luton and Rotherham will be able to, it still practically writes off their season before a ball has been kicked in anger.

If as seems to have been predicted that they lose twenty points, then they are needing a total of around 95 points just to ensure that they qualify for the Play Offs, with perhaps a century of points required if they harbour any sort of dreams of automatic promotion.

It's perhaps also worth noting that the late run of form isn't uncommon when a side sees themselves as having nothing left to play for, grab a couple of wins, and then momentum kicks in. Bournemouth's recent history suggests that this late run was nothing more than a flash in the pan.

17th - Lower half nothingness

It's very rare in football that someone now gets a second chance. Manager Kevin Bond has been given one. That late run has given him a new contract, and with the new owners set to see through their takeover in the next few days (or at least get that FL rubber stamping), there's going to be some optimism floating about.

But much will depend on how important that end of the season run was. Had they had that run in say February, then we'd have had no problems dismissing it as just a short good run which was not reflective on their fortunes. But with it coming at the end of a season (and therefore not finishing yet), there's a slight feeling that things may well have changed.

But that optimism or whatever you want to call it from the end of last season could well be wiped out when the FL ruling comes in. As mentioned above, if its as much as twenty points then the Football League will have all but ruled out any chances of success this season, and certain elder members of their squad will find themselves playing out a final season going through the motions.

They've definitely got more about them than Luton or Rotherham, so we see them well capable of getting more than enough points to ensure that a relegation battle isn't on the agenda. Indeed, there'll be a few teams ending the season quite embarrassed at getting a points total smaller than Bournemouth's.

In an ideal world, we'd have had Bournemouth as being genuine automatic promotion contenders, with a points total of something like 85 points. Take off the twenty points, and a few more due to lack of motivation for the players, and we can see them getting around 50 to 55 points which will see them happily start planning for next season from about January onwards.