On the eve of the 2025/26 Premier League season, I published an article to predict what I thought might happen to AFC Bournemouth across the campaign – you can read that article here.

Predictions are never easy, that is the beauty of them – sometimes you look back on them and feel like a genius, other times you are left looking like a fool. It’s safe to say my predictions were a very mixed bag. Let’s have a look at what I predicted…

PREDICTED FINISH: 11TH

ACTUAL FINISH: 6TH

Funnily enough, I stated, and I quote, that “Tottenham are not going to finish 17th again”. Whoops. I also predicted that Manchester United would not finish in the top six (they easily finished third), and that teams such as Palace and Forest would struggle balancing the workload of European football (correct). I expected a season of development, given the outgoings last summer, but said we would do much better than many who said we would struggle. I hoped for a cup run, which never came, but what we got in the league was so, so much better. I don’t feel ridiculous to have predicted us to finish 11th, that’s around where we were sitting after our fifth successive draw, against Manchester United, just 7 games before the season end. But a remarkable surge to end the campaign, perhaps coupled with Andoni Iraola announcing leaving the club giving the players a boost, means we went into the last day of the season with the possibility of ending the season in 5th. It wasn’t to be, but to have qualified for the Europa League and to have finished sixth in the best league in the world is something I thought would never be possible, not even this season. 18 games unbeaten, just seven losses across the whole campaign is something we might never seeagain. I am delighted to have got this prediction wrong – what a season.

(PREDICTED) PLAYER OF THE SEASON: ANTOINE SEMENYO

ACTUAL PLAYER OF THE SEASON: ALEX SCOTT

Again, this doesn’t feel like a ridiculous prediction – had Antoine been here for the whole season, it’s incredibly likely that he would have won this award, had he kept his form up. He racked up a highly impressive 10 goals and three assists in 20 league matches, before departing for Manchester City for £65M. His performances warranted the move – in my predictions, I challenged him to stay consistent, and for the large part he did. Honourable mentions were given to Tyler Adams, Ryan Christie, and Evanilson – injuries would rule the first two out of contention, and Evanilson was not good enough to challenge for this award. In the absence of Christie, it was Alex Scott who would rise to the challenge and finally show us why we paid £25M for him three summers ago. But more on that in the next category…

(PREDICTED) YOUNG PLAYER OF THE SEASON: ALEX SCOTT

(PERSONAL) YOUNG PLAYER OF THE SEASON: ALEX SCOTT

There is no club award for young player of the season, but if there was, no doubt Scott (still only 22) would have taken that home as well. In my predictions, I said that this was dependant on him finally staying injury free and nailing down a ‘primary position’ – whilst he did fluctuate between the ‘6’ and ‘8’ positions, what was most important was him staying injury free to get a run of games, and that he most certainly did. He played in 37/38 PL games, only missing the final day of the season due to illness, starting 34. His performances started well, but his improvement throughout the season was a joy to watch, dictating multiple matches, with a marked improvement off the ball as well as on it to win the trust of Andoni Iraola. Scott’s ability to beat his man and pick the positive pass rather than the easy one, as well as that aforementioned defensive work, mean that I feel he should have been called up for the England World Cup squad. He is likely to make his debut tomorrow in a friendly against New Zealand, the least he deserves, but no doubt feels unfortunate not to have been a part of the main squad. Hopefully, he keeps his injury-free record up, and his time will surely come.

Elsewhere, I gave honourable mentions to James Hill, Junior Kroupi and Julio Soler. I did not expect Kroupi to get nearly as much game-time, or to play as well as he did – if it weren’t for Scott’s impressive displays across the season, he would easily have won this award. Hill I again said was dependant on game-time, but more on him next up. As for Soler, injury and (more importantly) the form of Adrien Truffert limited him to just three league appearances, none of which were starts. He could not even find himself near the squad in the latter stages of the campaign. Obviously, Rayan had not joined when these predictions were made – if he was, he would probably have been my tip for the award.

(PREDICTED) ‘SURPRISE PACKAGE’: DJORDJE PETROVIC

(PERSONAL) ‘SURPRISE PACKAGE’: JAMES HILL

For my prediction, I said I thought that there wasn’t enough buzz made about the signing of Djordje Petrovic. Despite a large struggle through the winter period, it ended up being a very strong campaign for Petrovic, who now holds the most clean sheets in a PL season for the club, with 11. But that would never have been possible without the efforts of one of the men in front of him, James Hill. Hill featured sporadically in the opening part of the season, but was brought into the side on 30th December against Chelsea, just days after a harrowing 4-1 defeat at Brentford. In that game, Bafode Diakite was unfortunately bullied by Kevin Schade and Igor Thiago. Hill ended up being the antitheses of that. No striker was able to bully the man who signed for just £1M from Fleetwood in January ’22. AFCB lost just one game since Hill came into the XI, a 302 defeat against Arsenal on January 4th. He was impressive on the ball, whilst defensively being everything you could want from your centre back, striking up a brilliant partnership with Marcos Senesi. Hopefully, Marco Rose continues to give Hill the chance he deserves.

Any other season, Junior Kroupi would have won this award – I genuinely did not expect him to score more than two or three goals – to have become the the top scoring teenager in their debut PL season in history is an incredible achievement. There were some quiet performances at times, and he rarely started in his favoured striker position, but came on leaps and bounds over the course of the campaign. This was perfectly culminated against Manchester City, with an all-round outstanding display and another beautiful goal. I really hope Kroupi is able to stay.

My surprise package honourable mentions were Hamed Traore (if he were to stay, although I could argue he was on track for 38 PL assists having picked one up in his cameo against Liverpool), Bafode Diakite (did not work out), as well as Marcos Senesi and Adrien Truffert (both had brilliant seasons).

(PREDICTED) TOP GOALSCORER: EVANILSON

ACTUAL TOP GOALSCORER: JUNIOR KROUPI

I predicted that Evanilson would build on his decent first season in English football, where he netted double figures in the league. Unfortunately, it did not pan out that way, as despite a number of very impressive performances leading the line, he netted just six league goals. However, his absence was always incredibly notable when not playing, and I have no doubt that he will score more next season. As previously mentioned, Antoine Semenyo would have taken this crown had he ended the season with us, but it’s the impressive Kroupi who takes the AFCB Golden Boot for the year. Well deserved.

(PREDICTED) ‘BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT’: JUSTIN KLUIVERT

(PERSONAL) ‘BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT’: BAFODE DIAKITE

I do actually believe that Justin Kluivert could be in contention for this category, having only registered two goals (and no assists) in 20 Premier League games this season, compared to 12 goals and five assists in the ’24/25 season. Whilst that was a disappointing return, he could very well argue that the four month injury lay-off did affect those numbers, which is fair enough. Amine Adli and Ben Gannon-Doak didn’t have great seasons despite their large fees (although again, Gannon-Doak was injured for a large chunk of the campaign), but I would say the most disappointing player was the previously mentioned Diakite, who after arriving for £30M, the second largest fee in club history, struggled with the physicality of the Premier League, and featured for just 15 minutes in the league in the calendar year, making no appearances after January. A tough first season for the Frenchman, and with Senesi leaving and a new manager in, it will be very interesting to see what the future holds for him.

As previously mentioned, it was a very mixed-bag for me in terms of my predictions, but fun to look back and compare! I look forward to doing the same next season, where results will undoubtedly be just as mixed.