AS heart-warming as Bournemouth’s rise from the brink of oblivion to the Premier League appeared in Tuesday morning’s papers, beneath the fairytale is a straightforward example of sound investment and cold hard cash.

You would have to have a heart of stone to not smile at the pictures of Cherries chairman Jeff Mostyn being thrown in the air by his players in the dressing room, or the look on the face of striker Brett Pitman, who has been with the club since the dark days of League Two.

Eddie Howe’s side have reached the big time playing some of the most attractive football in the division and few Wanderers fans would not wish them well next season.

But anyone who has been around in the Championship these last few years know this isn’t some footballing miracle.

Bournemouth have been serious financial players – and their success comes on the back of some sound business decisions, ultimately bankrolled by a Russian millionaire in Maxim Denim.

Since 2013 the south coast side have spent £7.38million on transfer fees, a total only beaten by Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest and Leeds United when you remove the clubs which, like Bolton, have been partially-funded by Premier League parachute payments.

Much, if not all of that total was recouped with the sale of Lewis Grabban to Norwich and through a sell-on fee for Adam Lallana but a glance at loan players added to the squad this season – Kenwyne Jones, Artur Boruc – suggests the wage bill Howe is working with is a healthy one.

Howe was also able to make a £5m bid for Birmingham City’s talented youngster Demarai Gray in January, hardly the act of a club struggling to make ends meet.

Bournemouth’s exact outlay is presently unknown as the accounts for the last 12 months have yet to be released but it is a safe assumption to make that they will not reflect a modest 10,000 average attendance at the Goldsands Stadium.

While this has escaped the Premier League-centric media’s attention, it is worth noting that the Cherries put money where their mouth was even before being promoted to the second tier.

Bournemouth came into the Championship as League One’s biggest spenders and on a hefty £15m loss, absorbed in part by a loan from their backers.

As a third-tier club they were able to sign ex-Wanderers trainee Matt Tubbs for a reported £800,000 and Matt Ritchie for £400,000 – a fee that now looks a snip, by the way.

Those kind of figures are enough to make even the most experienced managers lapse into envy.

Before the arrival of Neil Lennon at the Macron this season, one of the Championship’s finest purveyors of pure sense was straight-talking Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy, not a man who comes across as a sucker for a romantic tale.

Speaking earlier this month, the Yorkshireman attempted to dispel a few myths about his upcoming opponents.

“They’ve got good players, Eddie Howe’s done a very good job, of course. But they have been backed,” he told The Ipswich Star. “They’ve got Tokelo Rantie who’s a sub, who I think they spent £3m on.

“Callum Wilson, they spent a few million on in the summer. It’s not like they haven’t done it and I’m not feeling the ‘homely little Bournemouth’ thing. They’re a very, very good side, very professional and well-versed in the arts of the Championship.”

In many respects, Bournemouth’s example is no less fantastical than the Premier League journey was at Wanderers, bankrolled by Eddie Davies, as it continues to be to this day.

Little is really known about their Russian backer, who seems to avoid the spotlight in the same way as “Our Eddie”, other than he is a director at Surrey-based Wintel Petrochemicals.

The Cherries may want to take a hard look at the successes and failures that Wanderers made in their 11-year stay in the top flight, not least keeping control of a wage budget on a relatively small turnover.

Likewise, Bolton can look at Bournemouth’s example and attempt to follow suit.

Howe’s policy of investing in younger players to replace older ones and sticking to a footballing philosophy throughout is an admirable one and should keep his club on an even keel.

Buying low, selling high, doesn’t just apply to the stock market.

Solid outlays made by Bournemouth on Grabban, Ritchie, Wilson etc now look like very sound business decisions but show the benefit of investing solid cash, rather than looking to scour the bargain bin time and time again for free transfers.

Howe’s reluctance to rely too heavily on the loan market might be another example for Wanderers to follow.

Lennon has already expressed a reluctance to bring the same huge influx of temporary signings into the club next season and one would hope that is still the case when he has completed his business this summer.

Spending the money which will now come his way after promotion will be a very different test for Howe, the Football League’s manager of the decade. And having signed a mixed bag of talent on a bigger budget in his short spell as Burnley boss, he perhaps has a point to prove on that front too.

Bournemouth’s feel-good story will no doubt resonate through the summer, and you can’t begrudge the Cherries their day in the sun.

But does their promotion deserve to eclipse the achievements of Burnley under Sean Dyche last season, or Blackpool under Ian Holloway, who both had significantly smaller budgets?

Money continues to talk in the Championship, whichever way you choose to tell the tale.