CHERRIES boss Eddie Howe remained tight-lipped on Levante star Jefferson Lerma but admitted: “We are trying to bring players in”.

Valencia-based Levante last week turned down a significant bid from the Dorset club believed to be €22.2million, an increase on a previous rejected offer of €19m.

Lerma, who helped Colombia reach the last 16 of the World Cup, is understood to have his heart set on playing in the Premier League.

And he apparently handed in a transfer request after Cherries' latest bid had been dismissed.

But while Cherries are keen to seal a deal for the central midfielder, Howe revealed he would be happy to head into the Premier League season with his existing squad.

Questioned about Lerma, Howe told the Daily Echo: “I’m not going to comment on individual players, I don’t think that’s right. But yes, we are active in the market and trying to bring players in.

“I always consider us active in the transfer market until the window closes. It wouldn’t matter whether we had signed 10 players or one player.

“We have found it difficult to recruit, there’s no doubt about that. But we’ve found it difficult to recruit in every window because the pool we are fishing in is getting smaller and smaller.

“It gets harder and harder to find players who are better than the ones we have.

“The World Cup has been a problem and the transfer window shutting earlier has been a problem but that’s the same for every club.

“Let’s see how the last two weeks of the window go. We would certainly hope to add to the squad but there’s no guarantee and I’m more than happy to go with the squad we have now.”

Premier League clubs are permitted to recruit new players until Thursday, August 9 (5pm).

Cherries have made two signings this summer, David Brooks and Diego Rico, at a combined cost of more than £20million.

Asked if he had a figure in mind regarding how many players he would ideally like to sign, Howe said: “No, because so much can happen from this point.

“I could give you a number and we could lose players, or someone could leave on loan and we may have to replace them, so we’ll see.

“There are still many twists and turns which could happen.”

Meanwhile, Howe has revealed young midfielder Kyle Taylor is likely to miss the rest of pre-season due to injury.

The boss said: “It’s a muscle around his hip. I don’t know too much about it, it’s only recently happened.

“He tweaked it early in pre-season and then had a recurrence, so we’re probably expecting him to miss the remainder of pre-season.

“Brad Smith felt something against Bristol City, which was why he came off but I don’t think that’s serious.”

Cherries are due to host Real Betis on Friday and Marseille on Saturday before starting their league campaign at home to Cardiff on Saturday, August 11.