Steve Cook: Past few weeks at Cherries were 'really strange'

Jason Tindall was sacked following defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on February 2, with Jonathan Woodgate placed in temporary charge.

The likes of John Terry, David Wagner and Thierry Henry were all strongly linked with the role before Woodgate was handed the reins until the end of the season on Sunday.

Later this year will mark a decade since Cook arrived at Cherries.

In that time, he had only worked under three managers before this season in Lee Bradbury, Paul Groves and Eddie Howe.

Asked how the past few weeks had been with the uncertainty over the managerial situation before Jonathan Woodgate was officially announced as Jason Tindall's replacement, Cook told the Daily Echo: "It’s been a really strange period because obviously I’ve been used to a steady ship over the years.

"But this is football. It’s never plain sailing. You’re going to get ups and downs.

"We started off really well under the new manager and obviously there’s been a lot of hearsay around. Now he’s been named for the rest of the season we can kind of look forward, really buy into the ideas and put everything that’s gone on behind us now."

Asked if the speculation this month affected the team on the pitch, Cook added: "We’re paid to play football and win games. We’re not doing that at the moment.

"Obviously you’re going to hear and on social media you hear a lot of things that are happening in the background.

"We need that continuity now, we need to all come together and move on from the last two games, the last two weeks of everything up in the air."