DAN Gosling admits relegation with Cherries hit him “hard” over the summer, adding: “A lot of things happened last season on and off the pitch which weren’t good.”

The midfielder featured in 24 Premier League matches for Cherries last term, including each of the final eight.

And while he helped his side to victory over former club Everton on the last day, results elsewhere sent Cherries back to the Championship, finishing an agonising one point from safety.

That led to a massive overhaul at the club over the summer with manager Eddie Howe leaving before first-team stars Nathan Ake, Aaron Ramsdale and Callum Wilson all moved back to the top flight in big-money transfers, while Ryan Fraser also completed his move to Newcastle having left Cherries for free in June.

Asked what it’s been like to see the squad breaking up in recent months, Gosling told the Daily Echo: “It’s a disappointing thing when I see who’s gone and I see that as a squad and that as a team, you think we should never, ever have been down where we were.

“But a lot of things happened last season on and off the pitch which weren’t good.

“Once things sort of creep in, that we shouldn’t have let creep in really and it did, it manifested over the season and we couldn’t get out the rut.

“Confidence went down and then I think a few people were looking elsewhere before the season was done so it wasn’t ideal. But it’s one of those things.” Asked if there were certain players he felt didn’t want to be at Cherries towards the end of the last campaign, Gosling added: “I think it’s well documented, I don’t think we need to go into it now.

“But obviously it wasn’t a great feeling.”

Gosling joined Cherries in 2014 and immediately helped the club clinch promotion to the Premier League.

And now after five years at the top table, the 30-year-old is back in the second tier and made his first start of the campaign in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough.

“Obviously it was a short break so the summer, I’m not going to lie, it was hard for me personally,” said Gosling.

“I know for a few of the other lads as well it was very difficult. It was a really bad feeling.

“We gave ourselves the best chance after the Everton game but when you’re relying on results, it’s always bad. It took a while to get over, probably even up until the first week of pre-season, and then the big news obviously Eddie left and Jase (Tindall) stepped up.

“It was a lot of change, so it took one or two weeks to get used to.

“But we’ve all come around, we’ve all supported the new manager and we’re all behind him.

“We’re seeing a few different things and hopefully we can have a good, successful season.”