Are too many changes dangerous for AFCB?

The rate of turnover at AFCB looks set to accelerate. While Jason Tindall has told SkySports that if valuations for Bournemouth players are met the club won't stand in players way if they want to leave, it could be a bit of a rush for the door if players continue to see offers come in. We could be looking at a very different team t the one that won at Everton on the last game in the Premier League.

JT won't stop players who want to find the exit door.

While a clear out can be a good thing, it might be that too many changes could be disrupted. With Eddie Howe going it is the perfect time to reshape the club, but JT will have to have a long list of players to go and get if we see further sales which look on the cards.

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Although Callum Wilson and David Brooks can't keep their names out of the headlines at the moment, the whispers about Josh King and Lloyd Kelly have started to subside. It may be that they resurface for King and Kelly, but it will be important I believe for JT to hold on to some of the bigger names. 

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I say this as by changing the whole team the club will find it loses its identity for a bit. It is fine that some changes have to be made, but a total regeneration can be a dangerous move as we saw when Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks tried to rebuild after the Lee Bradbury era. Funnily many of the players who were unsuccessful under Groves won promotion with Eddie Howe. Bournemouth need to buy well and get results now though and that is not going to be an easy task.

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The level that AFCB are now at still requires very good professionals. It is clear that JT doesn't believe that the older players are the ones that are best to take on this challenge, having released Boruc, Francis and Surman. It is a new time though and as fans we have to accept that it is unlikely to be a smooth transition and they'll need a bit of luck to get things right straight away.

In other news, AFCB announce a pre-season West Ham friendly at the London Stadium on 5 September behind closed doors. The Daily Mail also claims AFCB have dropped the idea of making a legal case against Hawk-Eye for a technology failure to notify a goal in the match between Sheffield Utd and Aston Villa which would have seen Villa relegated rather than Bournemouth. 

Previous post on Cherry Chimes - A high price-tag to be set for AFCB winger

AFCB's midfielders linked with moves away

The location of where Dan Gosling and Harry Arter will start their new seasons looks open to speculation now as Cardiff City and Swansea City look to bolster their squads. Gosling has been attracting interest from Neil Warnock, according to Wales Online, while Arter is a target for Swansea City's new manager Graham Potter, reports the 72.

The interest in Bournemouth central midfielders follows the continued transfer talk about the Cherries wanting Jefferson Larma at Levante. keeping the Cherries' central midfielders content is not going to be easy for Howe with only one place looking up for grabs with his clear preference for Lewis Cook to be starting the majority of games next season. Dan Gosling has done nothing wrong in the past campaign and has been the best partner for Lewis Cook and it's not clear that Howe would want to let Gosling leave with the kind of performances he put in least season. Gosling is in a good position though to press his claims for a starting place in the newly promoted Cardiff side, if he did believe his starting position was going to be much harder to hold on to at AFCB. But Gosling still has three years left on his contract so Cardiff may find that their bid will have to top £10m for the player. Warnock is looking to snap the midfielder up for £5m.

Dan Gosling is receiving interest from another Premier League club.

Arter is more likely to be allowed to move as he has been much more vocal about his discontent at not starting games and while West Ham looked favourites to sign the player, he may find that a move away from Dena Court could see him have to drop down a division. What that would mean for Arter's international career prospects would be a pressing worry for the player and that could be the main sticking point for Swansea City trying to sign the ex-Woking player.

But until Bournemouth get a midfield signing of their own over the line, there seems little prospect in Howe deciding to deplete his small squad further unless clubs are willing to pay well over the odds to land their chosen players.

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As the transfer window continues though the pressure will increase on AFCB to make a break through in the transfer market. At present, the Sun on Sunday is indicating that Shaun Brooks at Sheffield United is most likely to be that first signing with the Cherries having made a £12m bid for the midfielder now with Spurs also looking to be interested in making an approach for the youngster.

Fan momentum grows for Joe Roach return

AFCB fans saw the door open for someone to replace Chris Hargreaves at the club this week and with Shaun Brooks and Paul Groves also leaving there is a ground swell of opinion for the return of Joe Roach. In the last few days the Twitter trending for Roach to come back has been strong and the talent spotting experience and teaching ability of the master trainer is something that Eddie Howe will know all about and hopefully will not ignore.

Having overseen the development of players like Sam Vokes and Danny Ing that are doing so well in the Championship at Burnley, as well as Josh McQuoid and Brett Pitman at AFCB and many others, it is easy to see why Joe is so much in demand by the fans. 

This week the Echo reported that Joe Roach was among those being considered for a position at the club and it will be excellent if he does decide that he has unfinished business at AFCB. Joe resigned his position in June 2011, when Eddie Mitchell was chairman, having had more than a decade at the club. I only hope that there is no remaining issues between Joe and AFCB. Hopefully Eddie Howe can speak with Joe and get him on board, because this would be a very popular decision and I believe it would give the structure of the club much firmer foundations going forward with the youth squads playing the attractive football that AFCB supporters have known and become accustomed to.

It is also rumoured that Carl Fletcher could make a return to AFCB, having left Conference side Barnet FC, so it is hoped that there is some good news along these lines next week.

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Backroom staff changes at AFCB

As we know, Chris Hargreaves left AFCB today to take up his position as manager at Torquay and it subsequently followed that Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks had resigned from their positions, according to the Bournemouth Echo. That leaves quite a hole in the backroom training staff at AFCB and it will be interesting to see if Eddie Howe looks to bring some more staff in quickly. I wonder of a few are sitting uneasy at Burnley, as Eddie and Jason left a lot of staff there when they returned to the south coast.

Chris Hargreaves watches Wes Thomas shooting before Ipswich match.

Andrew Surman is put through his paces by Chris Hargreaves.

Many fans have already been wondering if Steve Fletcher will change his role at the club. Stephen Purches could also be asked to do some extra duties.

Will such matters affect the players? Well I hope not, although some familiar faces no longer being around will no doubt be missed. Yet, AFCB is a club that seems to transform and evolve constantly and this season is no different.

What an opportunity for a young coach though who would get the opportunity to work with the youth team or the first team at a Championship club. Surely there will be no shortage of applicants, but it is another administerial job to do when perhaps Howe at least will be keen to be focusing on player matters, which is busy enough with the transfer window now open. At least the opportunity should allow Eddie to bring in the people he wants.

Good luck to all those who have left the club, particularly good luck to Chris who I hope does well at Torquay. I already see a possible pre-season friendly being arranged.

Part 1: Rolling back the years with Steve Fletcher

Cherry Chimes was one of 100 or more AFCB supporters who packed themselves into the Key West Bar on Bournemouth Pier on Thursday night to hear what 'Big Un' would have to say on his his career, colleagues and family as he shared an evening with his followers.

The evening began with Steve talking about having had three children being named 'Fletch' after him which seemed to cause him some embarrassment but deep down he said he was honoured. "It is such an innocuous thing to happen to you. I'm just a lad from Hartlepool."

One fan is also known to have Fletch tattooed on his back, with No10 on it, as a keepsake for when Fletch used to wear that number in his heyday for the Cherries. Steve talked about how as a football player you live your life in a bubble and you don't really take in all the things that happen to you at the time, but now I can see all he has achieved in the last 20 years. Steve has clippings of all the supermarkets he has opened, the schools, fates and hospitals he has visited etc in a big file. He said he was still touched by people's tweets.

Steve arrives on stage.

Moving onto his career at AFCB, Steve admitted that he did not really want to stay after that first season when he came down from Hartlepool. "I'm like Marmite," he said "People either love me or hate me and they didn't take to me at first in Bournemouth."

Steve had said to Mel Machin, the manager at the time (1994), that he didn't think it would work out for him on the south coast. Steve was only 19 at the time and had been brought in to replace Jimmy Quinn, but he had only started 11 games for Hartlepool when he had been spotted by Tony Pulis and brought to Bournemouth. The goals didn't fly in and he didn't establish himself as a first team player easily. The fee of £30,000 was also big for Bournemouth at the time.

Steve admitted that he did not want to sign for AFCB when he was driving down in July 1992 to take a look at the club and kept saying he wouldn't sign. But a stay at the Royal Bath Hotel, a tour of the ground and a meal at the Ocean Palace soon had him thinking differently. Tony Pulis was keen to get his man and the club treated Steve extremely well. He signed within 24 hours of coming down. "I just took a chance," Steve said.

In his youth Steve said he was not the most talented football in Hartlepool. He was just more dedicated than most. "I would annoy the neighbours paying football in the street. We had a long wire fence that I'd kick the ball against repeatedly, and I'd work my way down the street being told to move on each time. We had 28 houses in our street, so it took a long time for me to work my way down to the end."

In those days Steve played as a winger and was keen to play that role, but Cyril Knowles, Hartlepool's manager, saw him more as a striker. Steve had a couple of trials at 16 at Hartlepool before being taken on as a two-year YTS player at the club. Steve was injured most of the time and did not expect to get a full contract at the end of his scheme, but in 1990 he won his first professional contract, despite only playing in two reserve games all season. The team won in Steve's first pro game at Chesterfield 3:2.

It is on his mother's side of the family where Steve has some very high footballing pedigree. His grandfather played for England three times and he won the FA Cup with Derby County in 1946, the only time that Derby has won the cup. Steve still has his grandfather's FA Cup winners medal - a treasured possession. His grandfather played as a left back and Stanley Mathews commented that: "he was the hardest player he ever played against".

Sadly Steve's Grandad died 2 months before he won his first professional contract. Steve learnt all his 'skills' (that drew a few laughs) from his Grandad and so it has always hurt him that he never played professionally with his Grandfather looking on. The other side to his upbringing was that Steve's parents were publicans.

The Bournemouth contract
Tony Pulis was an admirer of Steve Fletcher. Cyril Knowles died during Steve's second year as pro and Pulis made a move for Fletcher as he felt he was ready for first team football. Steve was adamant that he was a Hartlepool boy and did not want to go to Bournemouth, not that he even knew where it was. Then a look around East Cliff and the promise of first team football seemed to good an opportunity to miss, explains Steve. "I had half a chance of making something with my life," said Steve. He said to his father "B..., let's do it!"

That season he picked up a cruciate ligament injury to his left knee with a 20 per cent tear when he played at Wigan's old Springfield Park ground. He was playing up front with Efan Ekoku. It was not a good time to get injured as he was in and out of the team, but he came back in just four weeks which was naive at 19 years old he says now. "I should have taken much longer to recover," he said. It probably meant his left knee was never as strong for the rest of his career.

The remainder of the season did not go well and Steve even heard a shout from the old East stand of, "Why don't you just go ... back home. We don't want you." To a 19 year old that is hard to deal with, but on reflection now, Steve says it was probably fair. His heart was not in it at the time. But Pulis liked something about Steve and he wanted Steve to repay him with the faith he had in bringing him to AFCB.

Tony Pulis is known as a long ball specialist, but Steve reminded us that he brought Joe Parkinson for next to nothing and sold him a year later for £800,000 and Neil Mansen to Wolves for £400,000. He had a tough management style and would drag players out of the treatment room. It was a different game then, explains Steve. He remembered one time with Paul Morrell (who was in the audience) when Shaun Brooks had gotten the wrong side of Tony Pulis and his failure to run around the old miniature rail track in Kings Park. Things were more disciplined then.

Part 2 to follow...

A calmer Eddie Mitchell in the Championship?

While our Chairman is perhaps known as one of the most colourful characters when he was happy to speak out at fans on the pitch and discuss his views openly in front of the cameras in League One, the club is speaking with more of a united voice these days.

In past seasons we have been entertained with Eddie's verbal expressions of passion for the club and his anger at those who did not share his views. Of late, Mr Mitchell has bot been so vocal except when the end was nigh for Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks. Since then it has been mainly smiles from our larger than life chairman. 

To be fair he has had no reason complain about much that has been happening over the last six months. He has seen his decision (or was it his wife's?) to bring back Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall come off exceptionally well, the team has performed above most peoples' expectations and he still has more building projects under way.

So why do I think Eddie Mitchell may choose his words more carefully in the Championship? Well, I feel the club has been striving for better communication with its fans for a while now and it is starting to show. The recent question about which kit to wear in the final home game was quickly resolved when the fans asked for it to stay the red and black home kit rather than the new all black third kit. Better communication with the fans and the media in general is a real positive for AFCB.

That's not to say that controversy is easy to avoid. Just look at the problems clubs like Blackburn Rovers have had with the Venky family. Bolton have had a dressing down over their sponsorship deal and Cardiff's Malaysian tie-up through its owner has proved particularly troublesome. The need for such big teams to achieve Premiership football seems to drive them to some crazy decisions. The pressure in the Championship will be on for Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Blackburn, Leeds, Bolton and Birmingham. For AFCB it is a chance to enjoy our newly won position and hopefully play with the shackles off unlike many other sides.

Undoubtedly, the spotlight will really be on our club though as a newcomer to the Championship, but at the end of the day the club is in it together. I expect AFCB to concentrate on getting the important things right, on and off the pitch. Mr Mitchell and the club have done a pretty good job in this respect in the last few months. 

10 things Cherry Chimes wishes had been different this season

AFC Bournemouth has had a fantastic season but there are just a few things that would have been nice to change. Can you guess any of Cherry Chimes top 10 changes that we would have liked to have happen?

10. I wish we could have mastered the penalty shot out against Oxford in the Capital One Cup, I so hate going out of cups in the first round.

9. Southampton, can't they be docked 10 points for unfairly sacking Nigel Adkins and have to play us in the Championship next season?

8. I wish one of those who came on loan had realised that coming to AFCB was not a holiday resort (I'll let you guess the player). Then again perhaps he was just not very good.

7. Eunan O'Kane decides it is not wise to collect the ball with his hands in the penalty area when playing Walsall.

6. Tommy Elphick manages to evade that tackle from MK Don's Ryan Lowe. 

5. Paulo Di Canio could have decided to leave Swindon Town earlier in the season so that they did not inflict that 4:0 drubbing on AFCB!

4. Super Fletch finds he can shed years and turns up at pre-season training looking like a 21 year old and comes out of retirement.

3. Wigan were not awarded a penalty in the first leg of our third round FA Cup tie and Eunan O'Kane's goal won the tie. AFCB then went on to Wembley, where Eddie Howe's team won the club's best ever trophy, the fans had a great day out and the Cherries go into Europe for next season. 

2. Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks had decided that diamonds are best worn on a girl's finger, so that AFCB would have had a better start in League One.

1. Brentford's O'Connor tells Marcello Trotta to take a long walk off a short cliff and grabs the ball from him to score in the 95th minute against Doncaster Rovers to promote Brentford and send 2000+ fans at Prenton Park delirious as AFCB fans celebrate being League One champions!

Have you any further suggestions that are printable?