No pressure on Iturbe to turn Bournemouth’s season – Howe

REUTERS – There is no pressure on Juan Iturbe, whose loan transfer from AS Roma is pending work permit, or any new signings to turn around Bournemouth’s fortunes this season, manager Eddie Howe said ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup clash against Birmingham City.

Bournemouth have dropped to 16th in the Premier League after a three-game winless run and they hope to welcome Iturbe with the club only four points above the relegation zone.

“It’s exciting to have a player like Iturbe. We are doing all we can to help him settle and we have an interpreter,” Howe told reporters on Friday.

“There is no update on Iturbe’s work permit, it is ongoing. We hope to have an outcome by next week, maybe Tuesday.

“Any new signing needs time to fit in. There is no pressure on Juan or anyone we sign to change our season.”

A frantic Christmas period saw the Cherries play three games in eight days, including trips to Arsenal and Leicester City.

As a result, Howe said that he was looking at giving game-time to some players who need it, but will not disrespect the competition as he seeks to guide the club to the fourth round of the FA Cup.

“We are not going to devalue the FA Cup. For us we want to create more moments and more memories for our supporters and the trip to St. Andrews is our next game, so that’s huge in itself,” Howe told the club website (www.afcb.co.uk).

“We’re desperate to progress and we’re desperate to win, we have rotated squads in previous years and our record has been good.

“There may be a couple of changes but the team will have enough quality in it to put in a performance.

“The philosophy won’t change and we’ll look at giving some game-time to others as we have to manage the squad well at this period of the year.”

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)