Federici signing should keep Boroc on his toes

Adam Federici looks like he’ll be sadly missed by most Reading fans looking at all their tweets about him. The keeper has been at the Royals for 10 years but the lure of Premier League football was something he could not resist. It is revealing that he chose AFCB to come to as Southampton were also known to be interested in the keeper, so the Cherries may have stolen a second keeper from the Saint’s noses in just as many days.

While Adam will be known for his slip up in the FA Cup Semi-Final this season against Arsenal at Wembley he will be well aware that he will have to be at his very best to dislodge Artur Boruc from the top keepers’ spot. Signing for three years though would indicate that Federici is here for the long term and he has bought into what the club is all about judging from his comments after signing for the Cherries. Again it is good business for the Cherries as Adam was released by Reading and was a free transfer. Reading conceded 69 goals last season, 24 more than AFCB in the league and Adam Federici had 12 clean sheets in the league. 

This does make it difficult to see Lee Camp and Ryan Allsop vying for a keeper’s position at Dean Court but Eddie Howe has said that he wanted Allsop to try and challenge for the No 1 jersey less than a month ago. Now the loan door probably opens up for him and keeping Lee Camp happy will also be difficult, but AFCB has several top keepers battling it out for just one place in the team and one on the bench.

I asked Dan at The Tilehurst End Blog if he'd answer questions about Adam Federici, so here they are:

CC: What are AFC Bournemouth getting with Adam Federici?

THB: You're getting a pretty decent bloke to have around the changing room and a solid goalkeeper at top end Championship/lower Premier League level. His shot stopping has generally been pretty good, while his distribution is amongst the very best I've seen at the Madejski Stadium. His handling is solid but not spectacular, while some fans have never been convinced about his command of an area.

Where he's really been held back is his ability to throw a clanger at the most inopportune moments, as this piece from one of our readers explains.

CC: What do Reading fans like about him?

THB: As mentioned, he's been known to make some big saves at crucial times and off the pitch he's always got on really well with the supporters.

CC: Is there a particular game that you can think of when he was truly magnificent for Reading last season?

THB: Not that immediately spring to mind! He was often doing his very best to keep the scores down, I think even in our thrashing at the Goldsands he was pulling off some fine saves to keep it respectable.

CC: Many thanks to Dan at The Tilehurst End Blog for giving us a bit more of an insight as to Adam Federici. One match back in 2008 which certainly did endear him to the Royals was when he scored against Cardiff in added-on time, which you can read about on this BBC report.


I noted that Baily Cargill had an exciting game last night for the England U20s. It finished 3-3 against Morocco.

Finally, one of our AFCB Canadian exile fans has asked me to post a video competition hosted by Vancouver White Caps that his three AFCB supporting sons have entered, to try and win their West Kelowna Football club (U10 Boys Vipers) a new indoor training ground - they need as many votes as they can get so please help by voting for Vipers FC here. You may also see an AFC Bournemouth goalkeepers shirt if you look closely!

Christian Atsu has singed from Chelsea on a season-long loan to the Cherries!