Defender Adam Smith has signed, on loan, for a month from Tottenham Hotspurs. The 19-year old has been ushered in to act as cover for Stephen Purches and Lee Bradbury who are either injured, or carrying knocks.
Manager Eddie Howe is quoted in the Bournemouth Evening Echo as saying: "I watched him for the first time in a pre-season friendly about two-and-a-half years ago and he impressed me straight away. He is someone we have always kept tabs on and we are delighted to bring him here. We are fortunate to have two very good right-backs but unfortunate that we have lost them both to injury at the same time. We are lucky that we are in a position to bring in a loan player as cover. Hopefully, Adam will enjoy his time with us and his stay will benefit both parties. He impressed again when he played for Torquay against us last season".
The deal, however, nearly fell through as the Football League originally decided not to sanction the loan move. Chairman Eddie Mitchell went on record as saying: "Some of the information that went into those accounts was historic to us and had to come from the receiver and that’s why they weren’t submitted in time. I think they are the first set of fully audited accounts that the club has sent in for a while. Once they were finalised, we then had the embarrassment of sending them to the Football League showing losses in excess of £1.5m for the year up to before we came in and £1.7m in total. I was told on Tuesday that there was no way we would be able to bring in a loan player because the Football League would not sanction it. I said we had to find a way and it just shows what determination can do. You can’t accept anything until you have exhausted all avenues and, at the time, we hadn’t done that. It’s a learning curve for everybody because we have all got to push this club to get it to a level where it should be".