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BOURNEMOUTH. — AFC Bournemouth’s Zimbabwean ace Jordan Zemura is not worried about his contract situation at the English Premiership football club.
The left-back has one year remaining on his contract.
Zemura is currently focusing on his football with speculation surrounding his future rife.
After a breakthrough campaign last season, the left-back has entered the final year of his contract at Cherries.
Alongside fellow starlet Jaidon Anthony, Zemura signed his latest deal in December 2020, tying him down until June 2022.
The contracts for both Zemura and Anthony allowed the club to exercise an one-year extension clause, keeping the pair on the south coast to at least the end of the current campaign.
Currently, the Zimbabwean international is enjoying his first taste of English Premier League football, making five starts in Cherries’ first six league games so far this campaign.
Despite not currently having a permanent head coach, Cherries have continued to tie down talents to new deals, with Chris Mepham the latest to sign a new deal at the Vitality Stadium.
Heading into this season, Zemura was one of eight senior players with a year remaining on his deal, with Mepham, Jack Stacey, Jefferson Lerma, Will Dennis, Adam Smith, Jaidon Anthony, and Junior Stanislas all on deals expiring in the summer of 2023, according to Transfermarkt.
With Mepham and Smith sorted, the club have also tied down stars such as Lewis Cook, David Brooks, Mark Travers, and Dominic Solanke to longer deals.
Although the Daily Echo understands that Cherries are working on further contracts, Zemura revealed that he felt he did not need to focus on off the field matters, instead paying full attention to his performances on the pitch.
He told the Daily Echo: “I’m just focusing on my football, just doing what I need to do on the pitch.
“And then, I let everyone else take care of that – I’m not needing to focus on that.
“But I’m here now and I’m enjoying my football.”
Meanwhile, Bournemouth interim coach Gary O’Neil has suggested that Zemura’s substitution in last Sunday’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest was a tactical decision as he wanted to change the formation shape.
Left-back Zemura, who was one of the Cherries’ outstanding players in the first half, was subbed off at half-time to make way for Ryan Fredericks.
The change saw the team switching to three centre-backs, and it paid off as Bournemouth came from two goals down to the match
Explaining whether he felt the change in shape was a catalyst for the comeback, O’Neil said: “I felt it gave us some control.
“It was in my mind before the game but because we had such a quick turnaround, it was a struggle to get any work into them.
“I felt we could still cause them problems with our back four. I felt we did and we lacked quality at the end of it.”
He added: “At that point at half-time it was like – we are going to go with what we initially thought.
“I wouldn’t give the system too much credit. You can change the system all you want – if you’ve not got a group that believe and go and deliver it, it wouldn’t make any difference.
“Full credit goes to the group of players that have given me anything again. That’s two games on the trot now where they have literally emptied the tank for me.” — Bournemouth Echo.
Online Reporter