In the third of our series on the progress of our young players loaned out last season, Rob Trent of the AFC Bournemouth Trust reports on the fine season that Max Gradel had with them under the most difficult of circumstances.
“Season 2007-2008 wasn’t the best season to be an AFC Bournemouth Supporter. The trials and tribulations suffered by long-serving fans got significantly worse this year. Even the most hardened of cynics who would have you believe that things could only get better had to re-evaluate their thoughts. Mind you, at least there was Maxi Gradel, loan signing from Leicester City.
Manager Kevin Bond started the campaign riding his luck on the fact that family ties with chairman Jeff Mostyn seemed to outweigh a rather poor conclusion to 2006-2007, including an early FA Cup exit to League 2 side Bristol Rovers.
Bond waited until late in the summer to move to develop his squad. Fans viewed the signing of ex-Celtic full-back Paul Telfer, and experienced striker Lee Bradbury, as an indication that we may have at least made the play-offs.
Things started fairly well. An away draw at Forest, and a victory at Doncaster gave fans hope. Maxis debut at Forest being a particular highlight. Less convincing however were performances in front of our own fans. As the season progressed, the away form dipped, and by December we still hadn’t achieved a single home victory…..
Kevin Bonds response to the poor performances was to draft in loanee after loanee. It became apparent that the fans were finding it difficult to recognise the players, and in fact the players had the same problem.
The exception to the loan signings was of course Max. His tricky wing-play was clearly something that League 1 journeymen were unaccustomed to. Max continued to impress.
However, off the pitch Max had other issues to worry about. The death of his mother, and the fact that he was now responsible for his younger siblings back in France meant that there were periods when he was unavailable. For such a young man these must have been very difficult times, but Max always gave 100%. The supporters by now had taken him as one of our own.
I don’t intend giving a game-by-game account, but prefer instead to remember the incidents which highlighted just how Max really appeared to care for his adopted club.
At the height of a particularly torrid time for Kevin Bond, we found ourselves losing in the FA Cup to non-league Barrow. An injury time equaliser gave us a life-line. Near the end of that extra time, and facing a penalty shoot-out, the ref awarded us a penalty.
Brett Pitman, the clubs allotted penalty taker then stepped up to do the honours. However, Max beat him to the ball! What followed was an incredible two minutes of squabbling and arguing over who should take the penalty. Pitman looked to the captain and then to the manager for support. Despite all this Max came out on top!
History shows of course that he scored, and we scraped through. Despite how unprofessional that incident looked, it certainly placed Max most definitely as a fans favourite.
The blow of a ten point deduction for going into administration seemed to galvanise the team. At one point in March we were fourteen points adrift of safety. Bond was finally picking a team made up mostly of permanent signing, plus Max. The occasional penalty was given in our favour and a similar dispute would follow, although each time Brett Pitman would put up less of a fight!
We were relegated. But Max, along with the others, did themselves proud. We like to think that Max enjoyed his stay here. We hope that you let us have him back, but if not, that you make use of his experience at our level.
Most of all though, Max did himself proud as a footballer and as a person. We wish Max all the best in whatever the future holds.”
‘Picture courtesy of Raymonds/lcfc.com’
If would like to know more about AFC Bournemouth Trust visit their website http://www.afcbst.org