In an interview in the Bournemouth Evening Echo, Gowling is quoted as saying: "I didn't realise how much I loved the club until after we had gone down so it would be hard to leave. But I've got to make the right decision for me and my career. My agent will be talking to the chairman this week. I'm still feeling the effects of relegation. It was new to me and I'm definitely not over it. It's hard to describe but it makes you feel a bit numb. It's the first time I've gone through it".
He goes on to say that: "Bournemouth is my first professional club in England and, every year I've been here, we've been tipped to go down, but I never thought it would happen. We'd been on such a good run and got it back to being a point adrift. And because you've been on a run, you feel there's no way you can go down. Even when it looked perilous after we'd lost the 10 points, I thought we could do it. I thought Doncaster would beat Cheltenham but I was wrong. I went to Carlisle thinking a point would be enough but, after the game, it was heartbreaking. We got a point but Cheltenham won".