Exclusive David Brooks: "If Bournemouth want to emulate Chelsea and Spurs? Of course, we want to win the Europa League"
Exclusive by Alessandro Schiavone at Epet Arena, Prague
Europa League MD 4
Sparta Praha 1-3 AFC Bournemouth
Goals: Singateh 35' (SP), Adams 57', Evanilson 81', Rayan 90'
David Brooks has revealed that Bournemouth are aiming to emulate Chelsea and Tottenham by going all the way in the Europa League this season.
Despite this being the Cherries’ maiden European campaign in their 127-year history, Marco Rose’s men have made a perfect start to the competition, winning all four of their games.
Many thought their European story would not go beyond the prologue, but the Cherries now sit second in the standings behind Benfica on goal difference.
They kicked off their campaign with a 2-1 win over Real Sociedad before thrashing both Sturm Graz and AC Milan 3-0.
And their dominance across the continent continued with another impressive victory in the Czech Republic yesterday.
With the game still locked, Lewis Cook's first-half penalty cannoned off the inside of the post.
With one man up following Tobias Guddal's sending-off, Bournemouth came from behind to see off Czech record champions Sparta Prague 3-1, courtesy of goals from Tyler Adams, Evanilson and Rayan.
That was one better than Arsenal had managed the previous day on the other side of the Vltava, where Mikel Arteta’s men had beaten bitter rivals Slavia Prague 2-1.
Chelsea won five games in a row on their way to Baku glory in 2019, while Tottenham collected nine points from their first four matches in their triumphant 2024/25 European campaign.
Asked by Capital Football whether Bournemouth were looking to keep English clubs’ dominance in Europe going, with Premier League sides having lifted the trophy four times since 2017, the Welshman nodded convincingly.
Brooks, 29, said: “Of course we wanna win it! It’s not as easy as just saying it.
“But yeah, I think everyone in our team wants to win it and wants the team to go far in the competition.
“These are special nights for the football club.
"I think we’re a very good side and the last two seasons we’ve been beating quite a lot of big teams in the Premier League so we knew that we can come anywhere and kind of pick up wins and things like that!
"So, we’re coming to every game thinking that we can win. So obviously European football, not everyone plays internationally and stuff like that…so it was gonna be a bit of a learning curve but the lads have played extremely well in all of them.
"And they’ve all been good games. I am certain that we can win any game that we’re going into.
"Sparta Prague are probably one of the best teams we played but the red card kinda helped us a little bit to slow the game down a bit.
"But they were still dangerous with ten men, and had some chances that they could have converted..”
Brooks shocked the footballing world when he revealed in October 2021 that he had been diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma.
But after overcoming such an ordeal, he admitted that nothing on a football pitch fills him with trepidation anymore.
He said: “If anything scares me? No, not really.
“I think it was a doubt whether I was gonna play football again, so just to be able to come to places like this and perform… it’s obviously a very proud moment for me!
“To be able to do it with Bournemouth as well, who were on the journey with me. It’s very nice.”
The high-flying Cherries are yet to beat London opposition in the Premier League this season following their 2-2 draw against Brentford in September and a 5-1 drubbing by Chelsea four weeks ago.
But with four trips to the capital in the space of a month awaiting them against Fulham, Arsenal, Tottenham and Crystal Palace, you would not bet against Brooks and company putting those wrongs right.
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