Gary O’Neil confident AFC Bournemouth did a ‘good job’ in January as ‘long term plan’ is clear | OneFootball

AFC Bournemouth head coach Gary O’Neil is confident that the January transfer window was a positive month for the club after adding quality to his squad.

The Cherries made six signings overall in January. This included two deadline day deals with Illia Zabarnyi and Hamed Traore joining from Dynamo Kyiv and Sassuolo respectively.

O’Neil’s next challenge is to ensure that Bournemouth stay in the Premier League with them currently 18th in the table. He believes that their January business can move them forward.

“We had a plan that we set out to achieve in January and everyone did a good job,” O’Neil told a press conference.

“We’ve recruited in areas that we were looking to recruit in and added some quality to the group, it was a good month for us.

“If you look at the whole window, we were really clear on what we were trying to do, if you start with the goalkeeper, for instance, we needed three senior goalkeepers in the squad.

“From that, with the rest of the business you can see in the profile of the players, the age, the transfer fees, there’s a real plan in place to move the club forward.

“That’s not only short term, but long term as well.”

The Cherries return to Premier League action away to south-coast rivals Brighton, who are sixth in the table and progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup after beating Liverpool 2-1 last weekend.

With no FA Cup action, Bournemouth’s last competitive fixture came nearly two weeks ago in a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest, but O’Neil insisted the time has been beneficial for the team.

“We’ve been working hard with the group and trying to get some of the injured lads back as well,” he said.

“As well as the new additions that we’ve made, getting the key players that we’re missing back will be equally as big.”

O’Neil confirmed that he will still be without trio David Brooks, Junior Stanislas and Ryan Fredricks for the Seagulls clash.

“We’ve been really unfortunate with injuries a lot, whether it be impact injuries or innocuous ones to really key players,” he added.

“We’ve had a tough spell injury-wise. I don’t like talking too much about it the day before a game, but what I can tell you is that David Brooks won’t be available, neither will Junior Stanislas or Ryan Fredericks.

“Dominic Solanke and Marcus Tavernier have both had good weeks on the grass and I’ll have a couple of late calls tomorrow.

“Let’s see at 2pm tomorrow who we have available.”