With Stephen Purches enjoying a good run in the Cherries starting eleven, Chairman Eddie Mitchell has gone on record as saying that he can see Purches having a role at Dean Court long after he hangs up his boots.
The Cherries supremo is quoted as saying in the Bournemouth Evening Echo: "I think he is one of the players that will be around the club for a long time – in some way, shape or form. I think he will feature in other areas of the club when he finishes playing football. That is what we would like to think anyway. If he gets his badges, his knowledge and is prepared to work hard, then I don’t see any reason that he wouldn’t be a part of the club in the future somewhere. tephen had an option on extending his contract for a year, providing he was involved in a certain amount of games and he has surpassed that amount of games. Because he had been playing so well over the past few months, I felt that rather than him coming to us and saying he wanted to take up his option, to show our appreciation I thought it would be great for us to go to him and ask if we could sign him. It was nice for us to be able to reward somebody in that way, rather than them coming to us for an extension of time on the contract.I spoke to Lee in depth about the situation with Stephen and he is a good professional, he keeps himself fit and he looks after himself".