A view on Howe's Russian away trip

I hope we are not going to become another Blackburn Rovers, but with overseas investors holding most of not all of the cards the change at the top this week has probably put some new operating dynamics into place for AFCB.

It was the Bournemouth Echo broke the news this morning that Eddie Howe and Neill Blake had flown out of the country to hold urgent strategy talks with Maxim Demin after the departure of Eddie Mitchell from AFCB. It is good that the management and the top board members are talking as soon as they can and face to face is a lot better than over the phone. What I would have paid to be a fly on the wall though for that meeting.

While the board will probably meet to discuss the chairman vacancy, it has been suggested that the club may not even appoint a new one. The sudden whole left by Eddie Mitchell really highlights how important the chairman's role is in my opinion. The whole stability of the club and its leadership comes from the figure head and with Eddie Mitchell AFCB had a flamboyant and bubbly character who liked to get his opinions across.

Their have been calls for Vice Chairman Jeff Mostyn to take up the position again, while Neill Blake, Adam Murray, Nicholas Rothwell and Tom Mitchell are also directors along with Mikhail Ponomarev and Alexey Panferov. I somehow doubt whether Max would want to do the chairman's job if he is more often in Russia with his other business concerns.

The main thing I hope for is that the club continues to be given a sense of direction and that the board informs supporters of its intentions and keeps open dialogue with the fans. There is a great atmosphere around AFCB and it's important for the players, management, fans and the club as a whole that the good work continues if we want to have a successful club. UTCIAD!

What do we know about our Russian friends at AFCB?

While Maxim Demin has enjoyed a long honeymoon period as co-owner of AFCB and has not been one to embrace the media or fans, it is clear that we don't really know that much about him. Eddie Mitchell has told us that the club will be in good hands and that Maxim has provided an extraordinary amount of funds for the club since buying Steve Sly and Jeff Mostyn's 50 per cent in AFCB in November 2011. The 42 year old is known to be a petrochemicals trader and the managing director of Wintel Petrochemicals with a £10 million house in Sandbanks.

Two of Maxim's friends are Mikhail Ponomarev and Alexey Panferov who are on AFCB's board having joined it in November 2012 and I would expect that others might be joining them now. Ponomarev is the founder of Energy Consulting Group and is said to be heavily involved in football sponsorship in Russia. Meanwhile, Panferov is the founder and managing partner of NewRussianGrowth Private Equity and has been a CSKA Moscow fan.

So these three Russian businessmen have got to know the club really well by now and have been an integral part of its success, particularly last season. I would hope that the Board members can tell us some more of how they intend to take AFCB forward in the coming months. I am very intrigued to know what they have to say and I expect you are too.

While this transfer window looks like going through fairly quietly, next January might be a bit different and certainly next summer.