Cherries focus on Chelsea Game as Deadline Day is silent

AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe is not anticipating any transfer activity on deadline day and also highlighted that his club cannot compete with the big teams in terms of wages.

While clubs like Manchester City and Arsenal have bolstered their squads with £50 million players such as Aymeric Laporte and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, January has been a very quiet month in terms of new acquisitions arriving and players departing the Vitality Stadium.

When asked how big money transfers like these affect the future transfer ambitions for teams like the Cherries, Howe stated “I think it means that basically, the ripple effect is that transfers cost more money.

“It’s a really difficult situation for us because we don’t have that kind of money.

“You look historically when we’ve been in the Premier League transfer fees have gone up, we’ve paid fees for players but it does get more difficult, hence why we are in a position where we’re not active in the transfer market because of the cost of the players.”

While Aubameyang is rumoured to be given a contract worth around £180,000, Jermaine Defoe is Bournemouth’s highest paid player at £75,000 per week.

The forty-year-old manager also said that Bournemouth are “some way of” from being able to offer players six-figure weekly salaries. He then elaborated:

“I think I’ve said this historically, going way back. I think it was when we were talking about paying players £10,000 per week I didn’t think there would ever be a day where we would reach that mark her, how times have changed.

“You can never say never in football, you never know what is around the corner, but I hope that we don’t have to do that at this football club, I don’t think that should be our thought I think it should be about trying to develop young players, that’s always been our way and I hope that we don’t have to change that.”

Despite deadline day looming over them, Howe insisted that his focus is still on Wednesday night’s visit to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The Cherries have lost their last five games against the defending champions and are winless in ten games against the London teams.

The former Burnley manager admitted that Bournemouth’s record over Chelsea:

“Overtime will not sound favourable on paper, but I think if you look at those games a little closer and when you’re involved in them you can see that, not all of them but most of them have been very tight games and closely fought and we’ve been in them, especially the ones this season against them.”

Bournemouth’s most recent performance against the blues was a 2-1 defeat in the league cup, where Alvaro Morata scored seconds after Bournemouth equalized in the 90th minute, to snatch the points in the 90th minute.

The Cherries Boss was confident that his side could get a result against the defending champions, saying:

“I think we have to take heart from the most recent performances, and try and get that win that we need.”

The big game will kick off at 7:45 pm tomorrow night at Stamford Bridge.