Bournemouth

Eddie Howe: 'Big transfer window ahead for Bournemouth'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 11 May 2018

Howe: 'Big transfer window for Bournemouth'

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe admits that his side cannot afford to stand still after securing a fourth successive season of Premier League football.

Eddie Howe has admitted that Bournemouth must get their transfer business spot on if they are to prolong their stay in the Premier League.

The Cherries are celebrating a fourth successive season of top-flight football after avoiding the drop this term with a game to spare.

Howe acknowledges that Bournemouth cannot afford to stand still, however, with up-and-coming players being targeted to help strengthen the squad ahead of the 2018-19 campaign.

"The biggest challenge for us is to improve the infrastructure of the club," he told reporters at Friday's press conference. "We're looking at the training ground and stadium - two huge things for us to really affect long-term change. On the pitch, all I'm going to focus on is continual improvement.

"It's going to be a big transfer window for us this summer. We're going to have to be very smart with what we do. We're never going to be able to sign established Premier League players who are aged 24-26 and in their prime. It's just not going to happen and we're well aware of that. We have to choose a route to go down in terms of our recruitment.

"More often than not we try to sign young players, develop and improve them so when they are in their prime they can step into the Premier League and do very well. It won't always work, you'll get one or two wrong along the way, but in the main I think that's probably still the healthiest way for us to recruit because then you get the long-term benefits.

"Ryan Fraser would be a really good example of how we look to recruit. He took a long time to get into the team, as we knew he would when we signed him. We signed him [in 2013] when we were in League One but he's now an established Premier League player and doing really well. Hopefully, we get the benefit long-term of his recent success. How you identify those players, that's obviously the tricky bit."

Bournemouth head to Howe's former club Burnley for their final match of the campaign on Sunday afternoon.