EDDIE Howe dismissed reports of a “dispute” between himself and dropped stopper Asmir Begovic and insisted: “There’s been no bust-up”.

The Cherries boss did reveal he had held talks with the Bosnian international – but insisted those discussions had been part of a normal process undertaken with each member of his squad.

The Mirror this week reported Begovic’s career at Cherries was “in question” after a “heated discussion” with Howe.

But the Cherries manager stressed his respect for the 31-year-old, who he signed from Chelsea for £10million in the summer of 2017.

Sources close to Cherries claim Begovic is committed to the Dorset club and will attempt to win back his spot in the starting line-up.

Asked about Begovic’s future at the club, Howe replied: “That will be dictated by Asmir, not by me. I signed the player, really like the player. I have a lot of respect for Asmir personally and as a goalkeeper.

“There’s been no bust-up, no dispute, just a chat and a talk and I am very happy with where Asmir is at. He’s trained excellently – that’s the main thing as far as I’m concerned.

“What’s happened will be a normal occurrence at every Premier League club. I have had discussions with a lot of the players that aren’t playing.

“I try to have daily contact with all my players. Sometimes you won’t see everybody, you have a squad of 24 or 25 players to get round.

“But having that contact is important and also the feedback side of it.

“I try to feed back to my players regularly on how they are performing, where I am at with their game and try to help them on to the next stage.”

Begovic had played 60 consecutive top-flight games for Cherries before being replaced by Artur Boruc for the 2-0 victory over West Ham last month.

Polish veteran Boruc retained the starting spot for games against Chelsea and Cardiff and is expected to feature ahead of Begovic at Liverpool tomorrow (3pm).

Asked what it is like to speak to a player after leaving them out of the starting XI, Howe said: “They are always the hardest conversations to have.

“I would love to play everybody and not disappoint anybody but the nature of my job is I pick 11 and disappoint 13 or 14 players.

“If they want to ask the questions why, I’ll give them the answers. The challenge for them is to fight back and put those things right – it’s a continual thing which never changes.

“If you don’t get disappointment from not playing then I would question that as well. You want to see a real drive from the players to play and a determination to get into the team.

“But you also want them to act as a team player at all times. Asmir has done that, so there’s no problems.”