AFC Bournemouth vice-captain Andrew Surman made a milestone appearance for the Cherries on Saturday against Everton, as his appearance was the 200th of his AFC Bournemouth career.
That career has come over three spells with the club, with the 32-year-old first joining in 2005 on loan from Southampton.
Surman made 28 appearances during a half-season loan spell. He looked superb under former manager Sean O’Driscoll and often looked like he had forged an almost telepathic relationship with James Hayter.
Surman scored 6 times and must have also collected numerous assists.
Seven years passed by with appearances for Southampton, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Norwich City, before another loan move to the south coast.
During that spell, Surman made another 39 appearances as AFC Bournemouth finished 10th in the Championship following promotion from League One a year earlier.
He would eventually make the move permanently for a fee reported to be in the region of £500,000.
AFC Bournemouth would win the Championship that season with Surman playing an instrumental role in the heart of the Cherries midfield.
He has now made 133 appearances during this spell, a figure that has moved him to 200 appearances overall.
Not only is Andrew Surman the nicest footballer I have ever dealt with, he's also keeping England international Lewis Cook and World Cup star Jefferson Lerma out of the #afcb team, so he must be doing something right!
— Ned Payne (@nedpayne_) August 23, 2018
Meanwhile, it was also a landmark day for AFC Bournemouth goalkeeper Asmir Begovic who raised his tally of Cherries appearances to 50.
It was also a landmark day for @asmir1… 👏
50 #afcb appearances and counting. 🍒 pic.twitter.com/PWjsqzxZBF
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) August 25, 2018
Like Surman, his appearances have also come over more than one spell.
The 31-year-old 9 appearances for the club whilst on loan from Portsmouth in 2007, ten years later he re-joined the club for £10million from Chelsea and has since made 41 Premier League appearances.
Surman told the Daily Echo…
“I’ve got great memories of when I first came here. It was a massive stepping stone in my career and I played a lot of games under Sean O’Driscoll.
“I played alongside the manager (Howe) but it is a different relationship now with a different respect.
“Bournemouth have always tried to play the right way and it suits my style of football.”
Your say…
afcb.czech wrote…
AFCB fans are fickle. Some of us still want us to hoof the ball to Fletch.
Surman is a midfield motor. He keeps things ticking, and is usually in the right place at the right time. He often passes to the side. Interestingly, after he clearly made an effort to contribute more to the attack by playing more forward passes and forward runs at the beginning of last season and end of the previous season he continued to be given grief on here for passing sideways.
Boruc and his distribution/howlers are similar. Certainly in his last season as our number one, he made minimal mistakes and his distribution was excellent, but he was continually criticized for being prone to howlers and poor distribution.
Pitman was lazy, even though he spent his last years with us running around like a madman. – Join the conversation, click here.
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