AFC Bournemouth have managed to enjoy a massive period of progression as a football club during the 2000s with them going from a position where they nearly went out of the football league all the way to the Premier League.

The Cherries have had dark moments since the 2000s, especially during the 2008/09 campaign where they had been deducted 17 points but still managed to survive in League Two thanks to Eddie Howe. He then led the club on a charge through the divisions winning promotion with them three times during his two separate spells and taking them to the Premier League.

Bournemouth are currently still feeling the effects of their relegation back to the Championship last term and also on losing Howe. They are already onto a second manager since he left. However, looking back, the club have had a lot of excellent forwards since the 2000s who have helped them challenge for promotion and survival.

Here then, we rank the Cherries’ top 10 best forwards since the start of 2000. Click ‘next’ to scroll through the list…

Before we start this list, it is worth noting the likes of Jo Kuffour, Wes Thomas, Benik Afobe and Glenn Murray are worthy of a mention as contenders for a place in the top 10. However, kicking off the list is Ings who makes the list due to the impact he made when he burst onto the scene and also the career he has gone on to have since.

Ings was a product of Bournemouth’s academy and is arguably one of the best players that the club has ever managed to produce from within their youth team set-up. The forward burst onto the scenes for the Cherries in very impressive fashion during the 2010/11 campaign in League One and he managed to fire in eight goals in 28 games.

That made Ings one of the most sought-after prospects in the English third tier and there was plenty of interest in him throughout the summer of 2011. The likes of Liverpool and Fulham had been circling before Burnley eventually made the move to sign the promising young forward. The Clarets paid £1 million for him and he eventually helped fire them to the Premier League.

A move to Liverpool followed, but injuries hampered his time at Anfield and he is now back amongst the goals for Southampton in the top-flight and is a regular in the England squad.

Another player who makes it into this list for similar reasons to Ings is forward Sam Vokes. He has also managed to prove to be one of the best talents the club has ever produced from within their academy set-up.

Vokes was handed his first chance to impress in the Cherries first team during the 2006/07 campaign in League One and he managed to show his vast amount of potential by registering four goals in 13 appearances. The following year would see the young striker impress even more and he scored 12 goals in 41 league matches despite the club suffering relegation.

Bournemouth’s financial situation was not good following their relegation to League Two and so Vokes left the club to make the move to Championship side Wolves in the summer of 2008 signing a long-term deal. He scored six league goals as he helped his new club to promotion to the top-flight in his first season.

He was sent out on numerous loan spells before finally settling at Burnley. At Turf Moor he managed to fire in 20 league goals in 2013/14 and 15 in 2015/16 as he helped them to two promotions to the Premier League. He is currently playing for Stoke City.

Before the start of this season, Dominic Solanke would not have been anywhere near to being a contender to make this list. However, he comes in at eighth place having finally started to repay some of the sizeable transfer fee paid for him in January 2019.

Solanke did not get off to the best of starts to his career with the Cherries and he failed to score in ten appearances in the second half of the 2018/19 campaign. Last term, the forward continued to struggle and looked a player short on confidence throughout the season until he finally scored his first goals during a win against Leicester City. He also scored at Everton on the final day of the campaign.

So far this term, Solanke has proven to be a much more reliable scorer in the Championship. At the time of writing, he has weighed in with 12 league goals and six assists in his 34 appearances. That shows that there is certainly a player in there that could eventually prove to be worth near the £19 million the club has paid for him.

Coming in at seventh place on this list is Lewis Grabban, who enjoyed two separate spells with the Cherries during the 2000s. One of those was successful and the other was less successful in terms of his impact.

Grabban was initially signed by the Cherries in the summer of 2012 off the back of a strong season in League Two with Rotherham United where he fired in 21 goals in all competitions. The forward proved to be a good performer for Bournemouth in League One and he fired in 13 goals in 42 appearances in the third tier as Howe’s side earned promotion to the Championship.

The following season, Grabban showed he could make the step-up to the second tier with ease managing to fire in 22 league goals in 44 appearances. He was then signed by Norwich City in the summer of 2014 and helped the club earn promotion to the top-flight with the Cherries in 2014/15. Bournemouth then re-signed him in January 2016.

However, Grabban’s second spell with the club did not really work out and he failed to score in 18 league appearances for them before leaving for Nottingham Forest after a few spells out on loan.

Steve Fletcher makes this list in sixth place pretty much down to the longevity he gave Bournemouth and the reliable presence he offered at the club during a challenging period at times during his two spells.

Fletcher was never a prolific goal scorer, but he was always able to weigh in with some important goals. At the start of the 2000s he fired in nine goals in all competitions in the 2000/01, 2002/03 and 2003/04 campaigns. Helping the club to promotion in the 2002/03 season. He then fired in ten goals in the 2004/05 season. He left two years later to join League Two Chesterfield.

However, Fletcher would return to the Cherries during the 2008/09 campaign and played a key role in helping them avoid relegation from the football league with four goals in 21 appearances. He then played a part in getting them back into League One and stabilising themselves in the division before leaving for the final time at the end of the 2012/13 season after they had earned promotion to the Championship.

In fifth place on this list is Yann Kermorgant, with the forward making the list having managed to play a key role in the Cherries earning promotion to the Premier League during the 2014/15 season.

Kermorgant was signed by Howe in January 2014, with the Cherries looking to find some more goals upfront in their first season back in the second tier. The forward had scored 32 goals in 96 games for Charlton Athletic so hopes were high he could make a difference for them. The striker was an impressive addition to the squad and scored nine goals in 16 league games in the second half of the campaign.

The following season, the forward continued to perform well upfront alongside Callum Wilson and he managed to fire in an impressive tally of 15 goals in 38 Championship appearances and a further two more in the cup competitions. That played a key role in the club going up to the top-flight. However, after failing to score in seven Premier League appearances he left for Reading in January 2016.

Coming into the list at fourth place is James Hayter, with the forward having come through the Cherries academy and managed to establish himself as a key performer for them during the first few years of the 2000s.

Hayter had been given a taste of first-team football in the few seasons before the 2000/01 campaign, but that was to be his first real breakthrough campaign where he managed to break double figures with 12 goals in all competitions. The following season he only found the net eight times, but in 2002/03 he helped them to promotion with 14 goals in all competitions.

The striker continued to fire in the goals for the Cherries with another 14 goals in League One in 2003/04, before he scored 19 and 20 league goals in the next two seasons. Hayter’s final season with the Cherries was the 2006/07 campaign and he managed to score ten league goals that term before leaving for Doncaster Rovers.

In third place on this list is forward Josh King, who makes the list having been a key performer in a number of positions across the forward line during the Cherries time in the Premier League.

King was signed by Howe from Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 2015 following their promotion to the Premier League. The Norway international managed to register six goals in 31 appearances in the top-flight in his first campaign with Bournemouth, before he hit a real period of form during his second season which saw him fire in an impressive 16 Premier League goals.

He followed that up with eight goals in 2017/18, before reaching double figures with 12 goals in 2018/19. However, last term, King was able to score just six goals in the Premier League in 26 appearances and could not prevent them from being relegated. He left the Cherries for Everton in the January window just passed.

In second place on this list is Brett Pitman, who makes the list having managed to be an excellent performer for Bournemouth in two spells with the club during the 2000s.

The forward initially came through the Cherries youth academy and he managed to start to make an impact for them in the 2006/07 season weighing in with five goals 30 appearances. The following year he upped that tally by two goals and then came to live in 2008/09 when the club needed him most hitting 17 goals to help them survive in League Two.

The following year, Pitman would manage to fire in an impressive tally of 26 goals in 46 League Two appearances to help the Cherries earn promotion. A move to Bristol City followed that summer but after two campaigns with the Robins, he returned to the Cherries in January 2012. He found the net 19 times in 26 League One appearances to help fire the club to another promotion.

Pitman then scored seven goals in all competitions in the 2013/14 season, before firing in 13 goals as the Cherries earned promotion to the Premier League in 2014/15. He then left the club for Ipswich Town in the summer of 2015.

Bournemouth’s best forward during the 2000s has been Callum Wilson who managed to play a vital role in helping to get the Cherries into the Premier League and also keep them there for five seasons before last term’s relegation.

Wilson was brought into the club from Coventry City in the summer of 2014 following an excellent season for the Sky Blues after he scored 21 goals 37 appearances in League One in 2013/14. The forward proved to be an instant hit for the Cherries and he fired in 20 league goals in the Championship in 2014/15 to help fire them to promotion to the top-flight.

The forward managed to score five goals in 13 Premier League appearances during the 2015/16 campaign, before scoring six league goals the following term. The 2017/18 season saw Wilson hit eight league goals, before he enjoyed an impressive 2018/19 term managing to reach double figures with 14 league goals.

Last term, Wilson managed to score eight goals in 35 league appearances but that was not enough to help them survive the drop. He left for Newcastle United last summer.