BRETT Pitman admits he would be keen to rekindle his love affair with Cherries - should the opportunity present itself somewhere down the line.

Pitman, who spent two fruitful spells at Dean Court, severed ties with the club last week when he joined Championship outfit Ipswich.

The Jersey-born striker was granted a free transfer by Cherries manager Eddie Howe and penned a three-year deal at Portman Road.

Pitman first joined Cherries as a 15-year-old when he was taken on by Joe Roach following a successful trial and netted a hatful of goals for the youth team.

He signed his first pro contract in July 2006 and was used sparingly by Sean O’Driscoll, Kevin Bond and Jimmy Quinn, with most of his appearances coming from the bench.

However, after getting sent off for the only time in his career during an FA Cup tie at Blyth Spartans, he earned a recall for Eddie Howe’s first game in charge at Darlington in January 2009.

He scored Cherries’ first goal of Howe's permanent reign – during a 3-1 win over League Two leaders Wycombe – and went on to play a pivotal role in the Greatest Escape that season.

Pitman was ever present as he registered 28 goals to spearhead Cherries’ promotion to League One and was crowned Daily Echo-Micky Cave supporters’ player of the year for 2009-10.

He left in a £550,000 move to Bristol City in August 2010 before rejoining the club – initially on loan in November 2012 – for £60,000 and again finished as leading scorer as Cherries clinched a place in the Championship.

Pitman, whose 96 goals make him the club’s fourth all-time leading league marksmen, chipped in with 13 valuable efforts last season as Cherries won an historic first promotion to the top flight.

Asked by the Daily Echo whether Cherries supporters had seen the last of him, Pitman replied: “Hopefully not, we will have to see.

“It would depend on a lot of factors. It would depend on where Bournemouth were as a club and where I was as a player, a coach or a manager.

“You just don’t know. If you had a crystal ball in football, it would make things a hell of a lot easier so it is a difficult question to answer definitively.

“But I would love to come back in some role as a player or coach because I have always said I class this as my home now. I don’t think you can rule out anything in football.

“When I went to Bristol, if anyone had said then that I would come back to Bournemouth, I probably wouldn’t have believed them so who knows what the future holds?”