"There's not too many better places," says Bournemouth midfielder as he reflects on six-year spell with Cherries
Tuesday 5 May 2020 21:50, UK
Bournemouth midfielder Dan Gosling has said he wants to finish his career with the club.
It is six years since Gosling left Newcastle after a largely unsuccessful four-year spell on Tyneside and moved back to the south coast.
In that time, whilst not necessarily first choice for the Cherries, he has become a reliable performer for Eddie Howe.
"I've got huge respect for everyone at the club; the chairman, the chief exec, the coaching staff," said Gosling.
"All the people who work behind the scenes are all fantastic people, so I'm very settled here.
"My little one's supposed to be starting school in September. We go on dog walks along the beach, and in the summer our family comes to stay and we have great days out, and they always say how lucky we are living here.
"It's a way of life that suits us. To bring up kids in a place like this, there's not too many better places."
It is hard to believe Gosling has only just turned 30. He made his Premier League debut for Everton on Boxing Day 2008 as a teenager, having signed from Plymouth Argyle earlier that year.
The highlight since has been securing promotion to the top division with Bournemouth, the five-year anniversary of which was last weekend.
"It's crazy how quickly five years goes," says Gosling. "Those few days were amazing - the Monday night win at home against Bolton, the pitch invasion, the beachfront parade, and then we jetted off to Las Vegas to celebrate! It was a whirlwind few weeks, and it's been an incredible journey.
"When I first joined the team, I saw the quality early on. I wish I had a video recording of what I said to my agent and people around me, of how good I thought the squad was.
"I knew we had a real chance, and I was proven right. We worked hard, we had a great spirit and we got promoted. The first year in the Premier League was tough, but five years on we're still there."
In the two months since Bournemouth's last match - a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield - Gosling admits there are occasions when the enormity of the situation has hit him, and that he is missing the camaraderie of the training ground.
"There have been a couple of days where I've thought, 'oh, this is not good'. I've missed it a lot more than I would have thought," he adds.
"You take it for granted seeing the lads every day. It's been tough and the longer it goes on, the more difficult it becomes to keep motivated and keep training."
Gosling has enjoyed getting to spend more time with his family, however. He has two daughters - aged three and 18 months - and says lockdown has been an eye-opening experience.
"It's been a real insight! Overall, I've really enjoyed it. I've spoken to a few of the lads and they say home-schooling is proving difficult, but we don't have that. I'm playing puppets, hide-and-seek, making dens, all that sort of stuff!
"I've done a lot of baking, I've jet-washed the drive, I've dug up a bit of the garden and now I'm waiting on some grass seed to arrive so we'll see how that goes. I've not had any time to sit there and twiddle my thumbs and be bored."
He says the players' WhatsApp group has come into its own over the last couple of months, with Andrew Surman the main contributor.
"And he's got three kids at home! He's probably hiding in the bedroom somewhere on his phone, sending all the videos. He's quite busy on there, he's a great character.
"I've been having FaceTime chats with a few people, but it's hard to keep doing that every day; 'what you been up to? Oh, not a lot, I'm in the house, where are you?!'"
