Are international call ups for some Cherries just around the corner?

We have had a few guest articles on Cherry Chimes and today I have another one for you. I was kindly asked by Irish-based AFCB fan Kyle Cotter if he could write a post to be featured on Cherry Chimes as he aspires to be a football journalist. I am always keen for other supporters to get their points across to other fans and so I am pleased to hand over to Kyle today. Here is Kyle's article.

Eunan O'Kane is already catching the eye of top teams.

After such a successful season back in the second tier of English football, we look at the players who could push on and make it for their countries. AFC Bournemouth have 8 full internationals in their squad already and I would love for these players to add to that and see other players get their dream call-ups.

A quick look at the Irish lads' records shows that O’Kane and Arter have both been capped at teenage level for the Republic and U20 and U21 in the case of Eunan O'Kane, but neither have yet to be called up by Martin O’Neill to the full international squad. For Ireland's friendly against Serbia Eunan was put on the stand-by list but never met up with the Irish squad. Earlier in the season we saw the Irish assistant Roy Keane visit the Goldstands Stadium for coverage of the FA cup game against Liverpool, in which O’Kane picked up the MOTM award and no doubt impressed the four times FA cup winner. The other Irishman, Harry Arter may have a more difficult task to get into the plans off Martin O’Neill due to him not being involved with his country since U19 level in 2007, but the amount of game time he’s getting under Eddie Howe can only help his case and at the age of 24 he has plenty off time to play for his national team.

Harry Arter is consistently raising his performance and improving his discipline.

Ryan Fraser is already ahead of most players at his age.

The curtain on Ian Harte’s international career closed at a time when he still had so much to give but at 36 years old now he will need something very special to break back into the Ireland set-up. It may also be something that he no longer needs if he wants to prolong his club football career.

Ryan Fraser is really beginning to pile the pressure on Scotland manager Gordon Strachan, he played 41 times for this season for the Cherries and with his youth and experience, he would be a great addition to the Scottish squad heading into the Euro 2016 qualifiers. Another player looking for a call-up to one of the home nations is Shaun MacDonald who has one Welsh cap to his name, but with being far from the first name on Eddie Howe’s team sheet Shaun could struggle to add to his tally unless he nails down a starting spot at club level. 

We're going to stay with the home nations and talk about Lee Camp, after representing England at U21 level he switched allegiance to Northern Ireland, whom he has 9 caps for but is no longer first choice. However, having played in all the matches for AFCB since 2 November 2013, with the exception of the Burton Albion FA cup match, when Ryan Allsop deputised for him, Lee Camp has been ever-present as the Cherries no.1 keeper and may just force his way back into international reckoning again.

Lee Camp could well get an international recall.

Shaun MacDonald could well have a part to play
in Wales' forthcoming European Championship qualifiers.

The only Cherry who has international caps outside of Europe is Tokelo Rantie, with 17 caps in two years, Rantie looks set to add to these caps for South Africa and keep the goals flowing for his country, which can only be good for Eddie Howe and his men.

Our last international is Benjamin Buchel, with 6 caps for Liechtenstein since 2008 he hasn’t exactly claimed the no.1 spot for his country, like Camp, Buchel needs to be playing regularly at club level to do the same for his country. Buchel has spent the season out on loan at Poole Town and will most likely have to leave Bournemouth on a permanent basis to gain first team football regularly.

If Eddie Howe can get this club to push on from last season and reach the play-offs or better, the rewards for these players could be endless.

Well, thanks Kyle for a good review of potential AFCB players who just might make full international for the first time or regain such an accolade again in the case of a couple who have fallen out of favour at international level. As an Englishmen Cherry Chimes is now off dream of seeing some AFCB players wearing the full England shirt, I suppose some will say Adam Lallana is a product of the Cherries' youth system and perhaps Danny Ings at Burnley could break into the England squad soon, if he does well in the Premiership next season. Who knows what the future holds? Keeping the international theme going, you can catch up with a preview to England's clash with Ecuador on World Cup Chimes - Florida's pressure cooker for England. 

Can AFCB add more teeth to their attack?

Roy Keane was pretty brutal in his assessment of AFCB's attack in the last third against Liverpool last weekend, but I guess you can't expect many positives from Roy. In a way I like the way he gives his opinions in a forthright manner with no hesitation and stern belief that he is right. You cannot disagree though that AFCB did not have the tools to hurt a team like Liverpool on the day, but can Eddie Howe strengthen this transfer window?

The main attacking threats AFCB currently use - Grabban, Pitman and TK.

Whether the attacking threat AFCB has changes in the near future is a question that AFCB fans will be keen to know. If Eddie Howe is going to dip into the transfer market for a striker this window he is leaving it late. There has been speculation that Yann Kermorgant is the man that AFCB could be after if Powell does not stay as manager at Charlton. While Josh O'Hanlon is reputed to be joining the club from Longford Town in Ireland, I imagine as a Development squad player.

At the moment 34 goals from 27 games is not strong enough to challenge for the play-offs. It is the most difficult area to strengthen as we have seen. Some may have hoped that Tokelo Rantie would have provided more ammunition than he has so far in front of goal, but perhaps last night is all that he needed to get going. It is good to see a smile on his face any way, even if he was not pleased to miss out on a second goal last night. But it's not just Tokelo that needs to find the net regularly. Brett Pitman and Andrew Surman need to be doing better in front of goal and they will want to be doing better, while Josh McQuoid is still waiting to get a run in the side. Surman is starting to be more involved and getting into threatening positions and Eddie Howe seems to like him above Josh McQuoid and perhaps Pitman with the 4-1-4-1 system.

Andrew Surman is yet t score this season.

What was a little surprising was to hear TK say that Eddie Howe should not be changing anything and that the team is best using him as a second half sub at the moment. If that suits AFCb and TK has more success that way then surely it is a good thing as Rantie gets used to playing English football.

Tokelo Rantie score his first home goal for AFCB.

What's going on at managerless Wednesday?

Managerial mayhem has already made its mark in the Championship with six bosses already losing their jobs or resigning from their post. Sheffield Wednesday is one of those clubs where there has been a change but no one has yet filled the vacant spot on a permanent basis. Dave Jones did a good job in getting Wednesday promoted from League One, but he found it hard to establish the Owls as a real contender in the Championship. That is a challenge that our own club faces and you need some luck on such a journey.

Dave Jones got the Owls up to 18th place last season in the Championship, but struggled to improve on this until his time ran out at the start of December. But Sheffield Wednesday are a big enough club to still make a good fist of this season having already beaten Leicester and Reading.

As well as Dave Jones, many others have fallen by the wayside at Forest, Middlesbrough, Wigan, Barnsley and most recently at Watford, and I expect there will be more manager who will also be walking the plank. Chairmen are already getting nervous as the half way point approaches and there is the chance of the January transfer window to salvage the season.

But who does a team like Sheffield Wednesday get in to revive their season? It is a big club with huge fan support but I imagine the funds for big players is simply not there because the club has been in League One in recent seasons and has not enjoyed much success. They could do with a manager like Ian Holloway or Cardiff's Malky Mackay who knows the division well and has had success in recent years, but getting hold of the right man is not so easy. That is probably why the Owls have been slow to appoint anyone on a permanent basis yet.

There was talk of them making an approach for Roy Keane who is working for as assistant manager for the Republic of Ireland, but that would seem like jumping into the frying pan to me. A much better bet would be the moderate, but tactical thinking Steve Clarke who was unfortunate to lose his position at West Brom. Sometimes though I don't think chairmen really know who would be best to bring to their club and so we have poor appointments and the managerial merry go round continues.

When AFCB line up to face Sheffield Wednesday it looks like Stuart Gray will be in charge of the Owls and could probably do a good job medium term but everyone wants a big name to head up their club. Milan Mandaric was after Neil Warnock much to the disgust of Owls fans and now Mandaric is probably in a difficult position to bring the right person in for the job having lost out on one man.

Does this mean it is a good time to play Sheffield Wednesday at home? Well it could certainly be that way if the Cherries can get that early goal and get the home crowd upset. It is surprising the things that go on behind the closed doors at club that have an effect on how the players perform and if Sheffield do not yet have a new manager I would rather play them now than in a few weeks time.

Meanwhile, last night's FA Cup win for Burton Albion means that AFCB will face them at home on Saturday 4 January.