Is Gosling ready to lift his performances?

There are doubts over Harry Arter's speed of recovery. Yet, last season's fan player of the year has seen his place filled during pre-season with the likes of Shaun MacDonald, Eunan O'Kane and most effectively I believe by Dan Gosling. Dan must have expected to have a busier first season on the south coast than his 18 league appearances, but now he has a real break with Harry's absence to become a main feature of the team.

Dan will be keen to make the most of Arter's slow pre-season.

This summer Dan has already scored against Exeter City and his knack of scoring goals is something that will be seen as a bonus. He doesn't just do it against lower league opposition either having helped the Cherries last season to at least score against Liverpool in the FA Cup tie. Also inspirational in the capital One Cup games last season, Dan seems to love the big occasion and there will be no bigger match than the first day of the new season.

It is that maturity and experience of playing in big games for Everton and Newcastle that puts Dan in a very favourable position when looking for a player to link up with Andrew Surman. While Harry has been in amazing form over the past year to keep Dan out of the team amongst others, there has to be a moment when Dan can get a run in the team and this looks like it is that time. He is more than a deputy though and would probably walk into many first teams.  

It is right that there should be deep concern about losing a player of Harry Arter's quality for a few games as last season it led to a slight dip in form when he did miss a period of games. However, Dan is already showing that he can slot in as a natural fit and I'm expecting big things of him in the new season now that he is back in the Premier League.  

Dan at Charlton's ground.

Hopefully later today you'll be able to read another post from me on the Shoot website about one of AFCB's back four. Shoot had some technical problems yesterday.

There is also a new poll on Cherry Chimes' sidebar that asks where will the Cherries finish next season?

Finally, the Bournemouth Echo reports that AFCB have appointed the brothers Igor and Oleg Tikhturov as directors at the club. Igor, 23, and 27-year-old Oleg are said to be business associates of owner Maxim Demin.