After their failure to navigate their way through the Championship play-offs and back into the Premier League at the first time of asking, there could very well be a fire-sale at AFC Bournemouth this summer.

Armed with a squad that on paper looked good enough to go back up, the Cherries were not as good over the season as many thought they'd be, only finishing in sixth position to set up a semi-final clash with Brentford.

Despite being 2-0 up on aggregate after five minutes of leg two in London at the weekend, Bournemouth succumbed to defeat as the game was turned on its head following a red card for Chris Mepham.

You can now expect the likes of Arnaut Danjuma, David Brooks, Jefferson Lerma and others to attract significant transfer interest, and a player who is already getting admiring glances from top flight clubs is Lloyd Kelly.

The defender cost Bournemouth £13 million from Bristol City back in 2019, and a year later he was rumoured to be a target for Liverpool, despite making just eight Premier League appearances.

That move didn't happen though and he remained at the Vitality Stadium to play a part in Bournemouth's Championship campaign, appearing in 38 league matches for the club.

His performances haven't gone unnoticed and according to The Athletic, the 22-year-old left-sided player is a target for several Premier League clubs.

Kelly has three years left on his contract though so he will not be going on the cheap if he does end up leaving the Cherries, and it remains to be seen who the identity of the clubs are who are taking a close interest in the England under-21 international.

The Verdict

After their defeat in the play-offs, the interest was bound to come quickly in multiple Cherries players.

Let's face it - they should have done a lot better with the squad they had and appointing someone with a lack of experience like Jason Tindall was probably a bit of a mistake by the club.

Now they will end up paying the price for their failure to get back into the top flight for the 2021/22 campaign - you can see the likes of Kelly, Brooks, Danjuma, Lerma and maybe even Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke attracting interest from clubs in top leagues across Europe.

Those are the kinds of players that will be looking to move on from the Championship - Bournemouth could make a lot in sales this summer but they'll need to re-invest if they want to get out of the league this time next year.