Gary O’Neil
Uruguayan defender Vina was one of six new faces brought to the Vitality Stadium in the January transfer window, arriving on an initial loan basis from Serie A side AS Roma. Asked if Cherries had been tracking Vina for some time before bringing him to England,
Gary O’Neil said: “Generally, January was very well planned. Of course things move, but the signings that we made were generally ones we’d been looking at for a while. It was a window that we’d planned and looked to fill certain positions, looked to sign some players we thought could help now and in the future. We’re pleased to get Mati in. Obviously left-back we were a little bit short, especially when Lloyd gets injured. Smudge obviously plays there as well, but you can’t have Smudge in two places at once! So left-back we were a little bit short and Matias has played some top-level football around different countries, so he’s more than capable of coming in and helping us.”
The left-back has missed Cherries’ last two games with a knee injury sustained in training, although it is not thought to be too serious. Uruguay have named Vina in a 34-man preliminary squad for friendlies with Japan and South Korea during the international break at the end of March. Vina is yet to start a game since arriving from Italy, the 25-year-old restricted to appearances off the bench against Brighton & Hove Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Explaining how the defender required time to get up to speed with the demands of the English game,
Gary O’Neil shared: “Fitness-wise he needed a little bit of work. He obviously hadn’t played a lot of football recently. And he was surprised at the level of training and the intensity. We did some work with him in the first spell to try and give him a chance so that when he was used, he was ready. I thought he did well when he came on against Wolves. Still lots of work to do with him, but he will be an important addition.”
