POPULAR Cherries goalkeeper Shwan Jalal has been told he can leave the Seward Stadium.

Jalal has become surplus to requirements since losing his place as the club’s first-choice stopper to new signing Darryl Flahavan.

Manager Lee Bradbury chose Flahavan over Jalal after challenging the pair to stake their respective claims during pre-season.

And while Bradbury admitted there had been little to separate them, Flahavan was given the nod for Cherries’ League One opener at Charlton a fortnight ago. The 32-year-old has started all four of Cherries’ league and cup matches this season, with Jalal relegated to the bench.

A mainstay of last season’s play-off near miss and the 2009-10 promotion side, Jalal rejected two new contract offers from Cherries during the summer.

It is understood their last offer would have seen him earn parity with the highest earners at the club, while chairman Eddie Mitchell was adamant it would also been their final one.

And while Jalal will be entitled to a free transfer next summer having failed to agree fresh terms, his reluctance to sign has prompted the club to circulate details of his availability.

It is not known whether Cherries would want a fee or let him leave for nothing, although they are likely to be keen to offload him before the transfer window closes at the end of this month.

Confirming the news to the Daily Echo, Mitchell said: “This is not something we wanted at all but we can’t really afford two first-team goalkeepers. We always knew this would be a possibility once it looked like we would be unable to reach agreement with Shwan on what he wanted. We had our ideas and he had his and we just couldn’t gel.

“We were in a situation at the end of last season where we could have lost our first-team goalkeeper and it was one of our biggest concerns. We felt it would be the right to get somebody else in and have been very fortunate with Darryl.

“In an ideal world, we would like to keep both of them to compete for a place but we don’t live in an ideal world.

“We offered Shwan a considerable amount of money to sign for another year and he was advised not to take it. I am both sad and disappointed about the situation because he is a great goalkeeper.

“He has been fantastic for us and I am surprised he has not been snapped up already because he is far better than a lot of goalkeepers I have seen in our division.”

When approached by the Daily Echo following the defeat at Charlton, Jalal politely declined to comment on the situation.

Meanwhile, Bradbury has confirmed that goalkeeper Dan Thomas’s planned loan spell with Dorchester has been shelved for financial reasons. The two clubs were understood to have been unable to agree a compromise over the player’s wages. Cherries are looking to loan Thomas to another club.