CHERRIES stalwart Junior Stanislas described his time at Vitality Stadium as a “rollercoaster”, sharing how the south coast was “pretty much home” for him and his family.

On Friday it was announced that after nine years, winger Stanislas would depart Cherries at the expiry of his contract at the end of this month.

Although hampered by injury in the past few seasons, the 33-year-old made 179 appearances in red and black, scoring 38 times and earning two promotions to the Premier League.

In an interview with afcb.co.uk, Stanislas described his time at Cherries: “I'd probably say rollercoaster.

“Within that nine years, there's been lots of ups many times, obviously, a few promotions to the Premier League, playing against some of the best teams in the world.

“Then, obviously, on the other side of that, we got relegated once and stuff behind the scenes, like injuries and stuff, is always tough. So, yeah, I would say rollercoaster.”

Whilst Stanislas is yet to confirm whether he will carry on playing on or retire, he admitted he would miss the people and camaraderie at Cherries.

“That will be the biggest thing,” he continued.

“In terms of football, and when things come to an end, it's always difficult, for obvious reasons, playing and stuff like that.

“But I think that just waking up every morning, coming in with this group of lads, the manager, the first team staff, Ese (Kousin, head chef), Paul (Fudge), the cooks.

“Being around Marta (Tomczak) and Ava and people who a lot of the supporters in outside world might not know, Duncan (Wells, kitman) and Ben, (the media team), people won't know.

“Just waking up every day, being around (those) guys is unbelievable.

“And hopefully, like I say, going forward in the future, something I can still continue to do in some capacity.”

“Obviously, I've got to know the physios pretty well over the years!

“But this environment - we're a collective, so when someone's down, you have everyone around trying to lift you up, even the people you drive in with.

“Recently Tavs (Marcus Tavernier) here now, recently, I've been basically his Uber driver.

“I pick him up every morning and bring him in and just conversations with him, you might not think help, but everyone plays a part.

“Like you say, the physios and, all the staff really just help you in little ways that they might not know, but just the fact that they're there and you're not isolated and you still have people around you is brilliant.”

“This is pretty much home for me now.

“I live down here, grew up in London, but this is pretty much home for me now.

“If I'm not here watching the lads, supporting them, then I'll always be sort of online, trying to watch the games and definitely catch the results and obviously keep in contact with the lads, the staff, and like, my family here.”