Two Bournemouth Players Who Could Be Sold At The End Of The Season
Bournemouth, having started in rotten form, have improved immeasurably in recent months and even at one stage managed a run of four wins and three draws with their three defeats preceding this run being to Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool.
They look like playing their way out of trouble in the Premier League and we should see them again next year. Though, as always, changes will be afoot and that includes having to sell people on. Here are two potential leavers from the Cherries in the summer:
Benik Afobe
The striker returned to his old club Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan in January and is clearly lower down the food chain than fellow forwards Jermain Defoe, Lys Mousset, Callum Wilson and Joshua King at the Vitality regardless of who else comes and goes this summer.
Despite being afforded 17 Premier League appearances by Eddie Howe this season he has only averaged 31 minutes at a time and is clearly not trusted at that level to get the job done. The fact that he didn’t score a single league goal in that doesn’t really help his cause.
Where he ends up next season is open to debate at this point, the Championship looking the most likely destination, but as he’s under contract and still has ability enough to do a job in the second tier he will at least command a reasonable fee for the club.
Harry Arter
Having been a rather underrated player at this level in the past, things have gone slightly better for the midfielder this time around.
Arter, statistically, is among Bournemouth’s poorer performers in the Premier League this season and although he is 28 and is not over the hill for a midfield player, his record of 4 bookings in just 11 league starts is perhaps a sign of him slowing down and not coping well.
It’s not nice to speculate on changes to Arter’s life looking from the outside in, but what does stand out is that he played the 90 minutes of all of Bournemouth’s first five league games this season before being left out of the squad altogether a couple of times in late September.
Since that point we’ve seen a mixture from Arter of starts, sub appearances, not coming off the bench and not being named in the matchday squad at all.
It seems that being out of the side has coincided with Bournemouth’s upturn in form and so it may well be that Howe decides to sell him on while he’s still at a good age on paper.