FORMER Cherries goalkeeper Shwan Jalal has labelled ex-boss Paul Groves’s treatment of the club’s senior stars “disgraceful”.

Groves and joint-boss Shaun Brooks replaced Lee Bradbury late in the 2011-12 campaign as Cherries finished 11th in League One and released a host of players during the summer of 2012, including long-serving defender Warren Cummings.

Speaking in former Daily Echo sports editor Neil Meldrum’s new book ‘AFC Bournemouth: The Fall & Rise’, Jalal said: “None of us knew Paul or Shaun really, or what they were about, and when they came in the implementation of training and strategy was like we were playing in the youth team. They didn’t trust the players as far as I could see.

“I went away for the summer in 2012 and they released Warren Cummings, Michael Symes, Mathieu Baudry and Lyle Taylor. Shaun Cooper also left.

"Warren had been at the club for 10 years, won a play-off final in 2003 and been promoted with us in 2010, yet Paul told him he was releasing him in a 30-second phone call.

"It was disgraceful and certainly got Paul off on the wrong foot with some of the more senior players like myself.”

As well as the likes of Josh McQuoid, Lewis Grabban, Miles Addison and Eunan O’Kane, Groves also raised a few eyebrows by signing Frank Demouge and Lorenzo Davids.

“When we came back for pre-season in 2012-13, it was like a whole new team,’ added Jalal.

“I met Tommy Elphick for the first time as he was coming in on loan from Brighton, but before the day was out, he’d signed permanently!

“It was a complete upheaval and I don’t think Paul and Shaun grasped how to treat senior players as a management team.

“We’d come in for training and if you weren’t hydrated enough you weren’t allowed to train or if you didn’t wee before training you’d be fined.

“The medical staff were pulling their hair out as the players all had sore groins because of the repetitions we were being made to do. It just wasn’t democratic and was all about the control they had had with the youth team. They tried to bring that into the first team and it just didn’t work.

“They had also brought in Frank and Lorenzo and we just didn’t see how they fitted in. Frank hadn’t even had a medical when he signed and when Steve Hard, the physio, looked at his knees later that summer he said he didn’t think he would ever play football again!

“It was madness and there were players who were injured who didn’t want to rush back because they could see the writing was on the wall for Paul and Shaun.”

After a poor start, Groves and Brooks were sacked with Cherries 20th in League One.

“My last game under Paul was at Swindon,” added Jalal. “They had Matt Ritchie and Gary Roberts on the flanks, two of the best wingers in the division, and we played a narrow diamond.

“We just looked at each other in the dressing room and said, ‘We’re going to get absolutely massacred’. We just didn’t trust Paul and Shaun’s selection or tactics. We got absolutely shredded to pieces.”

AFC Bournemouth: The Fall & Rise, published by Pitch Publishing, is available from Amazon and all good bookshops from October 4. It can be pre-ordered from Amazon by visiting http://amzn.eu/d/8cINNIf