CHAIRMAN Eddie Mitchell has expressed his disappointment at Frank Demouge’s failure to cut it in England – but insists the striker was not a “dud” signing.

Dutchman Demouge yesterday put the finishing touches to a move to Holland when he signed a loan deal with top-flight outfit Roda JC until the end of the season.

The 30-year-old was given permission by Eddie Howe to return to his homeland, even though the Cherries boss would have preferred him to pursue his career in England.

Demouge last season netted seven times in 20 appearances for FC Utrecht before becoming Cherries’ marquee summer signing when he penned a two-year deal.

However, after admitting he had found the rigours of the English game demanding and picking up an injury in his first training session, Demouge was sidelined for the first two months of the campaign.

And despite forcing his way in and starting Paul Groves’s final two games in charge, Demouge failed to feature under Howe and slipped further down the pecking order following Brett Pitman’s arrival.

Mitchell told the Daily Echo: “It is frustrating all round. We know that what suits one manager, might not suit another and his injury didn’t help when he first came here.

“He has gone back to a top-flight club in Holland so it is not as if he was a dud. He just didn’t make the breaks he would have wanted, for reasons only he and the managers know.

“If we find there are players needing to play and wanting to move because they are in a foreign country, we will let them go, providing the manager is agreeable.”

Demouge is understood to be one of the highest-paid players at Dean Court, with Roda expected to pay the majority of his wages while he remains with them.

Mitchell added: “He came on a free transfer so it didn’t cost much to get him. We have paid his wages while he has been here, which is a cost. If he had played and scored 10 goals, we would say we were pleased with the outlay. He didn’t but you could say that about lots of players.

“Signing players is often a gamble, more so when you find somebody from abroad.

“He hasn’t gone permanently and, maybe next season, it might be different. He might go there and score loads of goals and, when he comes back, Eddie might have a different view, I don’t know.

“We are not here to waste money for the club, we are here to cut our cloth as tightly as we can and still try to be successful. Frank fitted in well and always conducted himself properly. But you can only get 11 men on the pitch and we have got people in that position who Eddie chooses to pick. That is the way football is.”