Promotion is the only way I’ll see our season as a success... but we’ve rebuilt a broken club
JASON TINDALL may not be nautical by nature, but the Bournemouth boss has lived near the coast long enough to pick up on the lingo.
“Smooth seas don’t make great sailors,” said the London-born manager, as he reflected on a difficult last week.
“There are always ups and downs in any successful team, it’s not always plain sailing.
“You’re going to have these weeks, these moments when things don’t quite go as you would have liked.
“You just have to put them behind you, bounce back and learn from the experience.”
Tindall, 43, has learnt a lot about management in the five months since he stepped up from his role as assistant manager to replace Eddie Howe.
Not least in the last 13 days, when defeats by Derby and Luton – on the back of a draw with Millwall – have caused much consternation among those Cherries fans who expect their club to bounce back to the Premier League.
“I’m sure their emotions will be as mine are and they will be a little disappointed with not getting the points we wanted,” Tindall said.
“But you’re going to hit bumps in the road and you have to respond to them.
“It’s easy to be disappointed, but you have to take a step back and think about everything that has happened.
“It’s not only the club being relegated from the Premier League, but a lot of staff losing their jobs and a lot of players leaving the football club for different reasons.
“Aaron Ramsdale, Nathan Ake, Callum Wilson (above), Ryan Fraser and other experienced players who had been here so long — and Eddie no longer being the manager.
“It was a big change from where the club was and not just in personnel, but in mood, in how people were feeling.
“There were a lot of question marks over me being appointed manager, too – and rightly so. “I had to answer the questions people had and try to change the mood from a team that was used to losing a lot and that had got relegated.
“There was a short window for people to take all that in, because we were back at work two weeks after the season ended.
“So when I weigh up everything that’s happened I have to be pleased with what we have done.”
As Tindall points out, Championship leaders
Norwich had only one season to acclimatise to the Premier League compared with the five years the Cherries spent up there.
And others who have had a few years in the top flight – Stoke, Wolves and Portsmouth among them – struggled to find a way back after relegation.
Which is why sixth place, and just four points off second place, albeit having played a game more, maybe doesn’t look that bad.
Asked what will represent success, Tindall said: “Promotion. You want to win the league, ultimately.
“You enter any competition to win and we can still do that. There are still 63 points to play for.
“But Fulham and Aston Villa have done well after going through the play-off route, West Ham as well.
“So however you achieve promotion it is still an achievement and that’s what we want to do.”
MAKING WAVES Tindall has charted a course back to the Prem