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Eddie Howe has lost a key member of his management team because of financial problems at Bournemouth.

Highly-respected coach John Yems, who has been with Howe and his assistant Jason Tindall for the last six years, has been told the club can no longer afford to keep him.

Yems, 58, has been Bournemouth’s football operations manager and, despite Howe fighting to keep him, the Premier League club told him it was for financial reasons.

Bournemouth’s players have returned to pre-season with some shocked that Yems has left.

It will be a major worry for Bournemouth fans that the club is having to make cutbacks and that Howe lacked enough power to keep one of his most trusted lieutenants.

Bournemouth, owned by Russian businessman Maxim Demin, finished 12th in their third consecutive top flight campaign — making them £113million in prize money — but the Vitality Stadium only holds 11,450.

(Image: Getty)

Yems said: “The owner has always been fantastic with me, I’ve still got a very strong relationship with Max and I class it more as a friendship.

“The disappointing thing is with the people who do the day-to-day running of the club and how they’ve handled it after my six years of loyal service.

“To be told there’s no money for the position anymore is hard for me to take considering what I’ve given for the club.

“We’ve taken the club up through the divisions, we’re part of a management structure and you don’t expect to be told it’s a financial thing by a Premier League club.”

Yems is described by the club’s website as having a “wealth of football knowledge and contacts” and has been promoted out of every division, having been assistant manager at Exeter before Bournemouth.

Ex-Crawley Town boss Yems joined Bournemouth with Howe and Tindall, and played a key role in bringing them back to the club in 2012 after they had a brief spell at Burnley.

But the trio have now been broken up with the departure of Yems who is keen to stay in the game and has built up a reputation as an outstanding coach and scout.

Bournemouth said in a statement: “AFC Bournemouth can confirm that Football Operations Manager John Yems left the club at the end of June, upon the expiry of his contract and following a review of the role. The club would like to thank John for his service over the last five-and-a-half years.”