JORDON Ibe completed 90 minutes in a Cherries shirt for the first time at Millwall on Saturday.

That this landmark should arrive in such deflating circumstances was quite apt given the winger’s rocky baptism to life at Vitality Stadium.

It wasn’t meant to be like this.

Eddie Howe admitted as much following his side’s FA Cup exit, offering this cutting verdict on his club record signing: “He hasn’t been a regular in the team so that would be a disappointment for him and us.

“I still feel there’s a lot of potential in there. Obviously, he has to fulfil that when he gets chances...”

Enticing Ibe to Dorset represented every bit as much of a statement of Cherries’ intent as their subsequent loan capture of Jack Wilshere.

Arguably even more so. Wilshere remains employed by Arsenal.

Ibe, then 20 and with 58 appearances for Liverpool under his belt, threw in his lot with Cherries.

Howe paid £15m for the winger. It stood to reason, then, that a few observers questioned whether the manager was indulging Ibe when he ignored the player’s sketchy form to start him in each of Cherries’ opening 11 Premier League fixtures.

That particular accusation has since been shown up as a fallacy.

Ibe’s run in the team ended when he was hooked off at half-time of the match with Sunderland on November 5 – but not before elements of his performance had drawn audible grumbles from the Dean Court stands.

His four substitute outings in the intervening period tell the story of Ibe’s campaign in microcosm.

Twenty minutes on the periphery of the game at Arsenal was followed by an excellent second-half cameo against Liverpool.

Ibe was purposeful and brave against his former club. His movement was excellent, so too his decision making.

A fortnight later and the young Londoner was ineffective against Southampton.

Ibe’s only contribution to the action at Chelsea on Boxing Day saw him lazily surrender possession in midfield, before watching Pedro disappear over the horizon to score Blues’ third goal.

Perhaps this isn’t what you would have expected for £15m. But, in truth, it is what you expect from a 21-year-old.

Let’s address the transfer fee first. Cherries’ outlay on Ibe is something of a red herring.

Cash-rich Premier League clubs are routinely breaking their spending records in these days of television contracts measured in the billions.

Actually, £15m constitutes a steal for a promising English attacker from one of the Premier League’s foremost clubs.

Everton heralded the arrival of a new year by paying League One Charlton Athletic £11m for Ademola Lookman, a 19-year-old with 49 first-team games to his name – none of them in the top-flight.

That’s the market.

More relevant when appraising Ibe’s embryonic Cherries career is his tender years – and, most pertinently, the upheaval he has crammed into them.

Ibe played 11 times for Wycombe Wanderers when he was 15, at which point he was spirited away by Liverpool – a turn of events any number of teenage boys would give their eye teeth to experience.

Four-and-a-half years later and the winger was upping sticks again.

Quite apart from the emotionally draining effect of all this – and remember Ibe will likely have spent countless hours wrestling with his decision to sacrifice being a Liverpool player in favour of his personal betterment – he is having to adapt to a whole new football culture.

Howe’s teams operate to a distinct formula. It takes some getting used to, particularly if you are one of the two wide players on whom the whole thing can stand or fall.

Junior Stanislas has perfected what Howe wants from a wingman. He is playing the best football of his life. He is 27.

Another Cherries wideman, Ryan Fraser, five years Stanislas’s junior, was afforded a year out of the spotlight with Ipswich Town to master his craft.

On his return to Dorset, the Scot has been able to operate unburdened by the twin weights on Ibe’s shoulders: a hefty transfer fee and a support base waiting to be dazzled by their young hotshot from Liverpool.

The reason Dele Alli attracts such glowing comment is because he is unique, a footballer scarcely out of his teenage years but with an intuitive understanding of the game.

For every Alli, there are scores of players with a tale to tell about how their slow-burning careers caught fire once they located the ignite button, Alli’s Tottenham team-mate Harry Kane being a case in point.

Ibe is struggling, no doubt. He was poor at Millwall.

But Howe doesn’t do badly when it comes to improving footballers under his charge.

And, taken as a whole, Ibe’s time in the game thus far hasn’t been too bad either.

It would be folly to write him off.