WHAT happens when Eddie goes? Understandably, that’s a thought that nags at anybody who cares for Cherries’ fortunes.

It is highly unlikely those same people spend too much time pondering the future beyond Artur Boruc.

The Pole is a strange case in Cherries’ team. He’s not one of the ‘League One crew’. Nor is he one of the latter arrivals to Vitality Stadium, a footballer drawn to Dorset by the glitz of the Premier League.

In that respect, Boruc, rather fittingly, is a man apart. ‘Fittingly’, because Cherries’ number one is a singular character.

The man who Celtic supporters christened The Holy Goalie has no interest in his profession’s fripperies.

His single-minded attitude evokes thoughts of Neville Southall, the former Everton goalkeeper, taciturn and truculent in equal measure, who swerved his club’s 1995 FA Cup victory celebrations in favour of driving home to Llandudno to be with his family.

Goalkeepers, of course, are renowned for being a different breed. But, with the benefit of hindsight, it is possible to recognise that the headstrong Boruc was parachuted into Cherries’ dressing room at the perfect time.

He joined a club seeking to improve on an encouraging first year in the Championship. Inside Dean Court, Premier League football was considered a realistic ambition.

But the side had lost more league games than they had won when Boruc marched through the doors early in that 2014-15 campaign.

Cherries didn’t lose a Championship match in the new keeper’s first four months at the club. He tasted defeat in the league only four times all season.

It was, though, more than his hulking presence and otherworldly shot-stopping skills that he added to Howe’s side.

Boruc in work mode – by stark contrast to his almost disarmingly softly spoken nature – exudes a real arrogance.

It’s there in the upright posture, the strut and the authoritative, even dismissive, way he executes every facet of his job.

It is the sort of demeanour and outlook that rubs off on team-mates and which can quickly permeate a dressing room.

When he arrived at AFC Bournemouth, a 34-year-old with Fiorentina and Southampton among his other notable former employers, it was tempting to wonder if Boruc was preparing to wind down his career.

That was to under-estimate a man whose contribution to Cherries’ efforts these past two-and-a-half years have been somewhat overlooked – understandably so perhaps, given Howe’s side is laced with remarkable individual stories.

It is easy to take Boruc for granted, this decorated goalkeeper, capped 64 times by his country and a veteran of two major international tournaments.

That is not a mistake Howe would ever make. It is testament to how highly the manager thinks of his goalkeeper that he didn’t hesitate to recall him after he was forced to sit out two matches last month.

Adam Federici had deputised and not put a foot wrong.

When Boruc announced his return by delivering what could generously be described as an erratic display against Liverpool, a few observers might have been questioning Howe’s faith in him.

But he has seen first hand everything Boruc brings to the party. “A key component in our team,” he has called him.

Despite his 6ft 4in, near-14 stone frame, Boruc has been operating under the radar for too long, although he won’t mind that one bit.

Boruc told the Daily Echo after his late reaction save from Leonardo Ulloa had sealed his team’s recent victory over Leicester that he had merely been in the “right place at the right moment”.

They are words that will serve as a perfect epitaph for his Cherries career – which hopefully has plenty of life in it yet.

  • Cherries have appointed Rico Seitz as a director while John O’Neill has stepped down from the club’s board.

Seitz, 45, founded Helix – a Swiss-based firm of fiduciary specialists – with Cherries director Nick Rothwell in 2014.

He obtained a law degree from the University of Zurich in 1997 before joining Swiss Bank Corporation’s international financial planning team. 

O’Neill has stepped down following three years on the board.

The board now comprises Neill Blake, Jay Coppoletta, Matt Hulsizer, Jeff Mostyn, Mikhail Ponomarev, Nick Rothwell, Rico Seitz, Igor Tikhturov and Oleg Tikhturov.