Bournemouth opinion: Should the Cherries make a move for Dara O’Shea?

Bournemouth are looking for their next super-starlet after making moves for both Chris Mepham and David Brooks. The two have done incredibly well in the short time that they’ve been at the club and that has encouraged the Cherries to dip their toe back into the water.

This time they’re after Dara O’Shea, according to the Daily Mail. The young West Brom centre-back has had an impressive season on loan at Exeter City with more than a few impressive displays.

After initially struggling with the 20-year-old making his first appearance for the club 10 games into the season, by mid-November, O’Shea was in.

Injuries and various other issues saw him earn a starting spot and he never looked back. Since then, he’s missed only three matches and proved to be a vital part of the club’s push towards promotion.

Not only that, with the centre-back in their side the club has managed to keep 7 clean sheets but without him, they’ve managed to keep just the 5.

However, Exeter lost a few key games, including a 3-0 loss to Lincoln City, 2-1 to Forest Green and a 3-2 to Macclesfield Town. It shows just how much of a difference the young center-back has made to the team and why Bournemouth need to make a move for him.

The Cherries have an ageing back-line that needs replacing and it needs to be as soon as possible. Eddie Howe has managed to get away with it by depending heavily on the experience of Steve Cook, Simon Francis, and Charlie Daniels.

But various injuries and other factors have seen Nathan Ake and Chris Mepham become their main centre-back pairing. Yet barring that, the Cherries have little to no options and a move for Dara O’Shea would help change that.

Not the tallest centre-back in the world, the 20-year-old makes up for it with agility and great positional sense. He makes sure he cuts out a move before it even happens.

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Conclusion

Bournemouth clearly don’t have a transfer budget to compete with the Premier League’s biggest sides, thus, they’ll have to resort to shrewd moves. Dara O’Shea falls smack in the middle of that category and with time, the 20-year-old will prove to become a good defender.

There is the added bonus of freshening up an ageing defence for the Cherries, and that will go a long way to helping them survive in the Premier League.