A high price-tag to be set for AFCB winger

The Metro has reported that David Brooks is being chased by Manchester United and that Bournemouth have put a price-tag of £40m on the young Welsh international. Whether that price is enough to ward off the likes of Manchester United, is another matter. I would probably doubt it. If Solkjaer really wants to come in for Brooks, he'll do so.

David Brooks could get a massive move to Man Utd.

David Brooks would be one of the players that JT is most keen to hold on to, but if the player is attracting the likes of United, then he is not going to stay at Bournemouth. It's simple economics. If United meet the valuation Brooks will no doubt double his salary and be playing for a team that has title and European winner medal ambitions. Brooks' international pedigree would also get a boost, and Ryan Giggs would like nothing better than to see Brooks at his former club, where Daniel James is already proving how Welshman internationals can fit in very well.

Advertisement

Eddie Had a Dream eBook version -£7.99!

While Bournemouth would get a good price, if they sold to United, it would leave JT with another player to find for his dwindling squad. I suppose Bournemouth have to be fair to players like Brooks who have done well and deserve an honest valuation. If a price is agreed it is up to the player if he wants to leave, and I can't see why Brooks would think a year in the Championship would be good for him rather than the opportunity to play in the Premier League at a title chasing club.

Advertisement

Coastal Garden Buildings

Bournemouth's best hope may be that they get a few clubs bidding for Brooks, so that they can force the price up. It wouldn't surprise me if £40m was an opening gambit, but Brooks could attract a higher price in these times when most clubs are just trying to hold on to their players with such a short transfer window.

Advertisement

Eddie Had a Dream -now just 9.99!

In other news, AFCB have confirmed that Aaron Ramsdale has joined Sheffield United for the third highest ever Bournemouth transfer fee. Football Insider has linked AFCB with a move for former Wigan keeper David Marshall, 35.

Previous Post on Cherry Chimes - Management team completed at AFCB

Can AFCB take advantage of Man Utd heavy programme of games?

It will be windy today, and AFCB will be a showcase as the early game.

With only two places between Man Utd and Bournemouth we could expect a tight game in this early kick off. United will be thinking they have overcome their bad run of form with a good win against Norwich last weekend, and a strong Carabao Cup performance to knock Chelsea out away from home. But three games in a week might mean some changes for Solskjaer to contemplate and Rashford is not going to score free kick rockets every time he steps out on the pitch!

The real plus for Man United last week was to see Anthony Martial not only come back, but to link up really well with Marcus Rashford. Man United had a potent attack again. Once United had a focal point they looked a much better side. The fears and in complacency might not yet have faded from their game completely though. If they find AFCB hard to breakdown then they could yet go back into their shell again.

Advertisement

Solskjaer probably hopes that by playing game after game he will get his team to run into form. It has been happening so far this week, but what happens when they don't find things easy? It was pretty much a full strength side against Chelsea in midweek. Brendan Williams might not get a start, but we can expect Martial to be pushed up front to start against Bournemouth and Fred is likely to start in midfield. Pereira was also a sub in midweek and could come into the starting line up.

Advertisement

Eddie Had a Dream eBook version -available now!

But this is not a Man United that should hold too much fear for the Cherries. Pogba is out until December with an ankle injury, so they don't have quite that same central power unit. But McTominay has been sensational for them. The defence has also started to do better with a goal a game conceded. United's record is pretty similar to Bournemouth's start so I wouldn't be overly shocked if Bournemouth drawing record was continued for another game. But one home win is something that Eddie Howe would of course like to improve on.

Advertisement

Coastal Garden Buildings

Man Utd Away
DDLLW

AFCB Home
DLWDD

Possible AFCB line-up

AFCB Subs: Boruc, Francis, Kelly, Surman, Billing, Danjuma, H Wilson

AFCB TV PREVIEW

Are Man Utd back on form?

No Score draw?

Bournemouth don't often get Man Utd when they are in a downward spiral. Yet again we have seen them gain encouragement from their last outing against Norwich City at home and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be expecting his team to start picking up back to back away points, and a trip to Bournemouth is not going to be a game where they would expect to find it overly difficult to get the three points if the Man Utd of old turn up.

The good point for Bournemouth is that perhaps the pressure has come off Solskjaer and his players a little bit since they did win against Norwich. It might not have been a massive test for Man Utd going 0-2 up in half an hour away at Norwich and it will be down to Bournemouth to play with more defiance to not go down early against this Man Utd team. The player that seems to be playing with more determination than anyone on their side is Scott McTominay to me. He is scoring goals and making the tackles that are giving United a platform and he is clearly starting to play well with Maguire as he gets to know his game better.

Online-Bookies.org.uk

Man Utd managed 21 shots against Norwich, so Ramsdale might well expect a busy afternoon. It is the early game in the afternoon, which can make a difference when it comes to how the players are feeling, but Bournemouth have to take it on as a positive and not a negative that they are playing early. The must try and take on board that United are not the team they have been in past seasons and are a bit shaky if they are tested. I don't believe United are a fixed item yet, even with Rashford and Martial getting among the goals last time out in the league. But I have to confess, their away form is improving as was shown with the 1-2 away win in the Carabao Cup against Chelsea in midweek.

Advertisement

Eddie Had a Dream is on sale now!

A win against such a team would really get AFC Bournemouth's season up and running again and would make the disappointments of the last few weeks more bearable. The Cherries need a solid result, and if it comes against Man United then Howe will have done his work well.

Score Prediction Competition for T-Shirt
Send in your score predictions for AFCB v Man Utd to @CherryChimes. We will pick a winner from the correct scores to win a Cherry Chimes T-Shirt. All tweeted predictions get posted on the blog. Best of luck!



Cherry Chimes Newsletter - out today!
Cherry Chimes' November Newsletter brings you the best stories on the blog and the thoughts behind them from last month. It's out today, with special stories - Where will we be in another seven years and can we be pleased with the start of the season?

To sign up for the newsletter just complete the form below - like all good things it's free!

Email Address 

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

Rival Lines: Russell Slade has not won over Cardiff fans yet

Match Preview
Cardiff City v AFCB

Blogger Interview: Cardiff City Mad 

I know how much you all like Rival Lines so you have been lucky and ended up with a second Cardiff interview this week as I managed to get a few words with Cardiff City Mad  writer Michael Morris. I delve a little deeper into why things might not have worked out quite as well as many Cardiff fans might have thought at the start of the season and I try to get a feel of what supporters think of the future under Russell Slade.

CC: Why have Cardiff found it hard to get a consistent series of wins this season?

CCM: The season started off with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as manager and he just didn't have a plan. He seemed to make it up as he went along and results reflected that.

The appointment of Russell Slade, inexperienced at this level, did little to improve things significantly.

I feel we have the players to do well in this division, several of them played Premier League last season, but we have not had a forward thinking, progressive, ambitious manager to drive them on.

We have a steady Eddie at the moment and while he's dealing with a messed up situation off the field it means we are getting inconsistency on it.


CC: Do you think Vincent Tan has been misunderstood at times and that he has perhaps been more determined to listen to others this season?

CCM: He has not been misunderstood. He seriously misjudged what owning a Championship / Premier League football club was all about.

His changing colour ideas and whacky actions might work in other businesses and in other sports but not top level football in the UK.

CC: Do things feel any better now that you are back in blue shirts?

CCM: Yes it feels much better but it's going to taking a long time to get the spirit back. We attracted a lot of fans on the Premier League journey who were there for the glory. Colour to them didn't matter.

The core supporters who were hurt most by the colour change will take a while to come back and there are some who never will.

CC: What match was Cardiff's best performance this season?

CCM: We've not been convincing and dominating in any game in particular. We've had moments in several games but the quality of football has not been great.

We've managed to pull of a couple of shocks thanks to some backs to the wall defending to hold onto slender leads at Watford and Brentford.

CC: Is Russell Slade a good enough manager to get Cardiff heading towards the Premier League next season and has he changed some things for the better?

CCM: Honest opinion is that he isn't. The quality of football is not so god but he has had a lot to contend with. So I'll cut him some slack. But I do t think he's going to take us too far forward. I hope he proves me wrong.

CC: What has the atmosphere been like at the stadium as I see you have only won one home match in the Championship this calendar year?

CCM: Atmosphere has been poor. The quality of football and dreadful home results have seen thousands walk away. A 33,000 capacity stadium with less than half the seats filled is going to be a bit depressing.

CC: You have a lot of strikers at the club but only Kenweyne Jones seems to find the back of the net regularly so are you a much poorer team without him?

CCM: None of the strikers have been prolific. Jones had played more regularly so I suppose it's no surprise he has scored more. He goes a brilliant job of defending when we are protecting a lead.

Macheda and Revell were given a chance at Brentford and both scored. Maybe they just need a run of games.

CC: Are there any away fan pubs that you would recommend for AFCB supporters?

CCM: The stadium is a five minute taxi ride from the city centre. There are dozens of great places in town. Nearer the ground I'd say The Lansdowne, Plum Tree or The Romilly would welcome friendly away fans. The Ivor Davies is the nearest Wetherspoons to the ground and that gets busy with Cardiff fans.

CC: Are we in for another eight goal thriller - what is your score prediction for the game?

CCM: Maybe not eight goals but possibly three or four. I think you will probably win 2-1.

CC: What did you think of Brentford having just played them?

CCM: They dominated us for much of the game and it was a bit of a travesty they didn't score an equaliser. But Cardiff earned their goals and Brentford lacked the killer touch in front of goal. I think the play offs is the best Brentford can hope for.

CC: How do you think the top six will look at the end of the season in the Championship?

CCM: I think Norwich could come through to win the league with AFCB second. Derby, Middlesbrough and Watford in the play offs along with Wolves who will make a late charge to take out Ipswich and Brentford.

Thanks for those great answers Michael. I have been checking out Cardiff City Mad where there is a great report on the Brentford match which gives a few clues as to how Cardiff might play against AFCB, but with a couple of red cards it looks like Russell Slade will have to change a few things. I think Cardiff might be in trouble if they try and take the Cherries on with nine men! There is also a review of last weekend's Championship matches and information on the Cardiff squad and lots of stats to get you working out what the score will be. You can also visit their Facebook page and follow comments on Twitter @cardiffcitymad

What style can we expect from Cardiff against AFCB?

If you look at Cardiff's last away game at Watford you might expect the Bluebirds to play in a similar way considering that Watford are a fast passing side like AFCB and were playing at home on that day. Russell Slade has seen his team get success with playing a few long balls up to Kenwyne Jones, while the predatory nature of Adam Le Fondre in the box and Frederico Mechada's sharp finishing is something that Tommy Elphick and Steve Cook will have to deal with.

It has been a reasonable start for Slade and while Cardiff are a side that will let the opposition enjoy affair amount of possession they tend to strike really hard on the break and they have plenty of height with Kenwyne Jones in their team. I never felt that Cardiff were a bad team even when they started off slowly in the Championship under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They showed that even in the first game after Solskjaer's reign was over by getting a draw away at Derby County. Many of their squad have Premier League experience and AFCB will have to try and dominate players like Pilkington, Whittingham and Gunnarsson if they are to control the game.

Cardiff are perhaps not as adventurous as they were early on in the season. They have tightened up and are not conceding as many goals, although Bolton get the better of them at the start of November. It would be handy if Liam Feeney could hand on some tips as he was Cardiff's chief tormentor that day scoring a brace.

I'm sure Cardiff will set out to upset AFCB's passing game with a few testing long balls, but the Cherries's central defenders should be used to that by now. Eddie Howe will be concentrating more on how AFCB can hurt Cardiff and look to get the side's attacking players showing that the kind of skill they had around the box at Wolves is something they can replicate on a regular basis against any of the Championship teams. 

There was a good win yesterday against an Exeter City team for most of the AFCB squad who you would imagine will be used to line up against Liverpool next week. It was good to hear that O'Kane and Stanislas had especially strong games.

Grabban deserves his move

I was not that surprised to hear that Lewis Grabban has been chased so hard by Cardiff City. They now look to have his signature with their bid being accepted by AFCB, according to many news sources. The bids were always going to come in I felt once AFCB had not said that the striker was not for sale. Many of the newspapers were also saying there have been no bids so far, while SKY had been informing everyone that a bid of £3m would probably land the Cherries striker. Having not gone to Brighton in January, it was always likely that a team would be in for him this summer knowing that he had proved himself in the Championship. Cardiff have a nice windfall payment from the Premiership and it is obviously not sitting that comfortably on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's pocket.

We are unlikely to see this scene at Dean Court again.

Some of you will say that Grabban missed more chances than he scored and yes he could have bagged even more goals for the Cherries. But what is a pity is that we won't see more of the Kermorgant/Grabban partnership that looked so good.

While you can say Grabban's value has grown 10 fold since being at AFCB and the money will be helpful in recovering some of the out goings that the club has seen, how many 22 goal a season Championship players are there that can be bought for £3m? I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing to have happened for the Cherries. It will be their record profit from a player's sale and it shows that the Cherries can develop a player and increase their value. They still have a solid team with many aspiring young players and Grabban may have been good at leading the line last season, but it is possible that an even better striker will now come to the club, presuming that Lewis does sign for Cardiff. Even if he turned the Welsh club town and held out for a Premiership club, the signs are that others would be in for him now.

Lewis has helped the club not just with his goals,
but also his increasing value. I can't blame AFCB from cashing in.

Eddie Howe likes a powerful running striker and Grabban had that in abundance. Where he looks for a new strike partner for Kermorgant will be the main discussion for Bournemouth fans now. I am sure he would love to see one of the other current strikers at the club grab their opportunity, but I am confident that Eddie Howe will go into the market for another striker. 

I believe Eddie Howe new Grabban would be one player that would be very hard for the club to keep this summer and at least he has been given since January to start looking around to see who might be available in this window. The important thing will be to replace Lewis with quality as that will show that AFCB are a club moving forward. What I don't want them to do though is to pay over the odds for a player that does not have the pedigree to move the club forward. It's a test of Eddie's scouting team and it's part of the business that separates the good clubs from the not so good ones.

Whatever the impact of Grabban's seemingly imminent departure, the aim will be to lessen the blow and to even try and make it into a positive. If things stay the same they tend to go stale over time and what works well one season may not be as effective the next. But Lewis has done well and if that means a move for him, and a bigger wage bill, he has earned it. I wish him all the best.

Does it matter who the Cherries play in pre-season friendlies?

There has been plenty of early talk flying around about just who the Cherries will be lining up against in the summer months before the start of their next Championship campaign. Speculation has at least been heightened after last year's game against Real Madrid and while it might be hard to generate the same kind of surprise excitement there is no doubt that the pulling power of Maxim Demin's Bournemouth side, or perhaps Maxim's purse strings is likely to make it another memorable pre-season.

Any one got any objections to Real Madrid turning up again?

Ozil and Renaldo at the Goldsands stadium last summer.

Already I hear confirmation of Glasgow Rangers - 30 July, and also on the cards is talk of Everton, Portsmouth, FC Copenhagen. Perhaps they will provide the kind of games that will give AFCB players a good competitive work out. But last year, if we put the 0-6 Real Madrid friendly to one side, the other difficult  pre-season games were against teams like Woking and Salisbury, so perhaps the prospect of matches we hear against Dorchester and Yeovil will be tougher games than the likes of Rangers, oh and don't forget the traditional match against Poole Town. Much of these matches are just about fitness and trying players in positions where they may need some extra tuition, but as fans I suppose we all want to see some big named teams with star players if at all possible.

So while Eddie Howe and his team juggle with what the players need there are club considerations for having a few big gates with eminent teams. Personally, I do not mind that much who the Cherries play as I will be more concerned with how the Cherries are shaping up themselves ahead of the new season. That will be made even more exciting if the club can sign a couple of new players early on in the summer months, so that we can see how Eddie will be building on last season's success. I don't know about you, but unlike Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, I'd quite like to see Lewis Grabban running out in an AFCB shirt quite a few more times.