Have Bournemouth learned from things 'Aston Villa realised too late'?

The Observer's football correspondent Rory Smith has been drawing comparisons between Bournemouth and Aston Villa 's journeys from Championship to Europe on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club. Andoni Iraola's side could qualify for European football for the first time in the club's history this season, right before he is due to hand over the baton to newly-appointed head coach Marco Rose. "Aston Villa's argument [since their initial success] is that they've been held back by the mean PSR rules," Smith said.

"They believe that stopped them from making the journey from Championship to Champions League in less than five years, which is apparently too slow. "Bournemouth have been able to ride it out though. However, they have been very close to their PSR headroom, but that is obviously no longer relevant now it has been abolished.

"They have done really well in realising that the game is there to be played - and that game involves clubs like them selling a player every now and again. "Every so often you do have to cash-in on a big player, which I would argue - and I know their fans don't like this - Aston Villa maybe realised too late. "What is going on at Bournemouth is an extraordinary achievement.

They haven't lost since they sold Antoine Semenyo in January, which is astonishing. They've had a real triumph in terms of squad-building and talent-spotting. " Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer and listen on BBC Sounds [BBC] [BBC]