Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe admits their transfer window has been frustrating __with the club only bringing in one player in January.
The Cherries went down 2-0 to Crystal Palace on Tuesday night, leaving them without a win in the Premier League since December, but despite the run of results and the disappointing window, Howe is confident in his team’s abilities.
Aaron Ramsdale joined Bournemouth from Sheffield United but the rest of the work has been outgoings __with Glenn Murray joining Brighton on a permanent basis and a total of nine players leaving on loan.
Speaking about the January transfer window, Howe said: “It has been a difficult window, I am not going to hide from that.
“The pool of players that we have to recruit from is small and it is always a delicate balance between spending money and recruiting players.
“Anyone can spend money, anyone can recruit players but we wanted to recruit players that would make a difference to the team and that is incredibly difficult in this window with the finances that we have.
“I am not going to complain about it because I love the squad we have, I think it is good enough, it is strong enough, you look at the quality on the bench and I have no concerns.”
Chelsea recalled defender Nathan Ake and Howe admits they tried to get him back to the Vitality Stadium.
He said: “We had discussions with Chelsea.
“The bid that has been reported has been wide of the mark but of course we enquired about the opportunity to bring him back either on a loan or on a permanent deal, but that was declined.”
Bournemouth had a busy transfer deadline day as Marc Wilson was allowed to go to West Brom and Luke Grabban joined Reading, with both players moving on loan until the end of the season.
Speaking about Wilson, Howe said: “We were reluctant to lose another defender.
“However, in this situation we felt we could not stand in Marc’s way after the reasons he gave, which will remain private.”