"You Don't Need a Lamborghini!" Smith's Warning to Bournemouth's Starboys

"For all the excitement surrounding the next generation of young talent at AFC Bournemouth, Adam Smith believes there is another group of players who are just as important to the club's development - the experienced heads making sure those youngsters do not get carried away.

At 35, Smudge has gone from being the young player learning from senior professionals to becoming one of the experienced players others turn to for advice, and that role extends well beyond what happens on the pitch.

Speaking to Ben Foster on the Fozcast Podcast, filmed at the Wyatt Homes Stadium in Wimborne, Smith explained that Bournemouth's increasingly youthful dressing room makes the presence of senior players particularly important.

"I do generally think you need experienced lads. Like, lads are getting so much younger. We've got like 19-year-olds, 20-year-olds. It's so young."

Smith's influence can be seen in the smallest details, revealing that senior players are not simply there to offer tactical or footballing advice. They also help establish the standards expected within the dressing room.

"If you ain't got experienced lads, even the changing room will be a mess."

He explained that he sometimes finds himself having to remind younger teammates about things which may seem trivial but are actually part of maintaining standards.

"Sometimes I have to go around, like, clean up, tell the lads, like, 'Lads, like, put your sliders away when you've got a shower. Put your towels in.'"

And he stressed that this is not something which falls solely on him: "We've got a few other senior lads that just keep the younger lads in."

That responsibility becomes even more significant when young players suddenly find themselves earning money that would have been unimaginable to them only a short time earlier.

Smith revealed one particularly telling example involving a 19-year-old Bournemouth player who was considering buying a Lamborghini Urus because other players around him had expensive cars.

At this point... Smith stepped in.

"I just said to him, like, 'Mate, you're going on to big things. Like, you don't need to get a Urus because some of the older lads have got a Lamborghini, you know?’"

It was not simply a passing conversation, as the player (who many Cherries fans believe to be Dean Huijsen) eventually returned to Smith at the end of the season and thanked him for the advice. Smith also met the player's parents, who thanked him for intervening.

"He actually came up to me and thanked me for giving him that advice. And I also saw his parents and they said, like, 'Thanks for doing that because, like, I'm not going to.'"

For Smith, that is precisely where experienced footballers can make a difference, as young players can easily find themselves caught up in what Smith described as almost a competition between teammates.

"You just get carried away. Like, you feel like it's like a competition. 'Oh, let's get a nice car, this and that.' But you don't. Just concentrate on your football."

And it is not simply about telling someone what they should or should not buy, as Smith believes there is a wider issue around young footballers suddenly receiving substantial amounts of money without necessarily having the financial education or advice required to deal with it.

"I think some of the young lads need advice what to do with their money. They get so much so young that they don't always have financial advisors straight away. So I think there needs to be something done about that."

Smith believes this could be particularly important for players arriving from overseas.

A young footballer arriving in the Premier League from another country may never previously have experienced anything approaching the wages available in English football.

"Especially when it's a foreign player because they haven't been through that academy set up. They haven't had those teachings and learnings because they could have come from Brazil, they could have come from anywhere where they wouldn't have been on those crazy wages."

That is where Smith believes the relationship between generations becomes especially valuable... He has experienced the pressures, mistakes and temptations of a long professional career and can therefore offer advice from personal experience rather than theory.

Foster described that as the "beauty" of having an experienced player who has "walked the walk", and Smith agreed, revealing that he has actually passed his own financial adviser on to several younger players who have joined the club.

"I've passed my advisor on to a lot of players that come like, yeah, it's something that needs to be sorted, for sure."

So, it is clear that Smith's contribution is not simply about what happens for 90 minutes on a Saturday. It is about helping younger players understand the environment they have suddenly entered - and occasionally stopping them from making decisions that could follow them for years.

He recalls being told by older players to enjoy his career because it would disappear quickly. At the time, he admits he did not listen, but now, at 35, he finds himself delivering exactly the same message: "Now I tell the young lads, like, enjoy it. Make the most of it."

Because, as Smith has discovered himself: "It goes so quick, man. I just can't believe it."

And perhaps that is the real value of having experienced players around a young squad. They have already made the mistakes, learned the lessons and seen how quickly a football career can disappear.

Sometimes the most important thing a senior player can do is simply be the person in the room willing to say: "Don't do that. Trust me."