Bournemouth’s Eunan O’Kane grasps second chance

Six years ago, Eunan O’Kane was just a statistic; another talented youngster dumped by a Premier League club and forced to return home with his pride and career in ruins.

Fast forward and he is on the verge of making his debut in England’s top flight having defied the critics, bucked the trends, and worked harder than anyone would have expected him to. He shouldn’t really be back there. At least according to research that shows that 98% of academy players who fail to break into the first-team set-up at Premier League clubs never complete the return journey.

O’Kane clearly didn’t read that script. Released by Everton in 2009, he signed for Coleraine in the Irish League before Torquay United in League Two came calling a year later. He then moved on to Bournemouth and it’s been an upward curve ever since. Successive promotions with The Cherries have brought the classy midfielder, now 25, back to the Premier League. When once he was peering through the window hoping to be invited in, now he is being treated like footballing royalty.

“When I was going home from Everton, I wasn’t really thinking I was going to be back again in the Premier League. But at the same time I never put any limitations on myself,” revealed O’Kane. “I wanted to be the best player that I can be and I wanted to play at the highest level. Now, thanks to being at Bournemouth, I’m hopefully going to get that chance to play in one of, if not the, best leagues in the world.

“I don’t think I ever put any limitations on myself and thought that something was out of reach, but it’s just been a lot of hard work and dedication. Hopefully I can keep that going.”

In many ways, O’Kane and Bournemouth are a perfect match. They are both unpretentious, almost allergic to the spotlight, yet fully appreciative of how far they have come – even if most people expect their Premier League stay to be short. Still, they believe that they are ready for it. And somewhat strangely, Eddie Howe – their affable young manager – has opted to stick with his Championship-winning squad rather than recruit Premier League veterans en masse to aid their survival bid.

“There is nothing worse than wholesale changes and you’re looking around thinking, ‘well, where am I going to fit in here?’ So I think everyone believes that they have a great opportunity to prove that they can make that step up,” said O’Kane.

“I think you don’t fully appreciate it when you’re involved in it, but when you take a step back and evaluate where we’ve come from I think it’s been an incredible rise. And it’s something that we want to keep on building on.”

Perhaps even more impressive than giving his players a chance to test themselves against some of the world’s elite is the fact that Howe will be doing things his way. Yes, Bournemouth will stick with their slick, counter-attacking style of play.

“I don’t think you will see us change the way we play. That is what has brought us our success and it’s how we want to continue our success,” stated O’Kane. “I think it will be a really big strength for us. Some of the teams who have gone up in previous years have turned the ball over far too much and if you do that in the Premier League you won’t see the ball for 10 minutes.

“If you look at Swansea, they were in our situation and have thrived in the Premier League by sticking to their beliefs. So hopefully we can emulate them by playing the Bournemouth way.”

O’Kane better keep a pen close by as he continues to tick things off his bucket list: Premier League debut, first Premier League goal, playing against boyhood club Liverpool (he kept that quiet when with Everton), and, hopefully, a first senior call-up with the Republic of Ireland.

At underage level, he represented Northern Ireland but made the switch in 2012 to allow him to feature in a handful of games for Noel King’s U21s. Now, he wants to follow club-mate Harry Arter into the senior set-up.

“Harry (Arter) had a tremendous season last year and fully deserved his call-up. I’d like to be in the position that he is in because I have ambitions to be called up but I have to get my head down and work hard here first,” said O’Kane. “I think if you’re playing week in, week out in the Premier League and you’re not getting called into the (Ireland) squad then you have every reason to ask why not. But there are a lot of good players currently in the squad, so I just have to work hard.”