NEW chairman Bill Foley insists Cherries are “not going to be relegated” this season, and laid out ambitious longer-term plans for the club to push towards European football.

Gary O’Neil’s men currently sit 14th in the Premier League table, three points clear of the relegation zone, following Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea.

Foley, who completed his reported £100million takeover of Cherries earlier this month, was speaking to local media today on his 78th birthday.

Asked how he assesses Cherries’ season so far, Foley, who also owns NHL side Vegas Golden Knights, said: “We’re not going to be relegated. That’s not going to happen.

“Our goal is to make sure we stay up. To give the club the proper resources to stay up. And then beyond that to really start investing in infrastructure.

“To make this club a premier location for players to want to come to. As we’ve done with the Vegas Golden Knights. We created the right facilities.

“The first year, everyone laughed at us. They thought we were a joke – we’re playing hockey in the desert. How can that be?

“Then we invested in facilities, we did a good job on the draft and after the first year, players wanted to come to Las Vegas.

“It’s got tax benefits, it’s a great place to live to bring up a family. It’s not the strip, it’s really a community. And Bournemouth has got all that. And it’s on the ocean. Who wouldn’t to come to Bournemouth and play football?”

Quizzed on if he feels he can make Cherries an attractive enough proposal for players, compared to some of the big hitters within the Premier League, Foley added: “I know I can. It’s not going to be, it’s going to be the guys here. I know I can help.

“I’m going to try and do everything I can.”

Foley went on to discuss his future longer-term ambitions for the club, asked specifically where he sees Cherries in the next five to 10 years.

“In five years we should be between sixth and ninth in the table, consistently, in that range,” he said.

Asked to clarify if he feels the club can push for European qualification, Foley added: “Yes, exactly.

“Why shouldn’t we? We’ve got to do all the infrastructure, we’ve got to keep on buying and getting the players here.

“We’ve got to keep the players happy, we have to make this a place where people want to come, they want to live and they want to play football.

“In Vegas, with hockey, we routinely attract players and they come to play for us for less than they can go somewhere else. And because they want to be part of a winning atmosphere.

“They want to have the right culture around them. This team already has a good culture, so I don’t have to come in and fix the culture.

“At the Vegas Golden Knights, I created the culture. It’s a culture based upon what I’ve learned when I was in the Army at West Point.

“This team already has that culture, but I believe I can help.”