With recent speculation linking Francis with a move away from Dean Court, the popular defender has silenced that speculation by putting pen to paper on a new 3-year deal following 2 failed bids from Derby County.
Speaking in the Bournemouth Evening Echo on the new deal, Francis is quoted as saying: "I can see the club going places sooner rather than later. At my age and at this stage of my career, hopefully, I have got the best years ahead of me and I am absolutely delighted they are going to be here. It has been a different summer for me with the interest from Derby. But the bids were never anywhere near what the club valued me at and that was absolutely fine. If the club valued me at a high price that must mean they rate me and wanted to keep me. I wanted to repay them by saying I wanted to stay and they offered me a new contract which I was delighted to sign. If I’m honest, I didn’t think the club would be where it is now when I first signed. I came here because I wanted to play games, I knew the manager at the time and I was out of favour at Charlton. I know there have been ups and downs on the management side but I have enjoyed every minute of it. Under the current manager, it has been a whirlwind of a time, both for me and the club. They have been the best two years of my career and I feel I have played some of the best football. Everyone has performed well and that has been reflected by how well we have done as a team. I am not going to rest on my laurels and settle for what I did last season. I want to kick on and I signed the new deal because I feel we can as a team and I can as a player. I don’t think I had anything to prove to other people last season but I wanted to prove to myself that I could play at this level. I also want to prove I can hopefully play higher and would be delighted if that was with Bournemouth".