Todd Cantwell hoping to get his confidence back at Cherries

Despite making a big impact at the start of his debut season as a Premier League player in the 2019-20 campaign, Cantwell was powerless to prevent Norwich City slipping straight back into the Championship.

The talented playmaker was one of the Canaries' stand-out players that season, which saw him linked with a host of top-flight clubs over the summer, when relegation was confirmed.

Having been left out of the Norwich team at the start of last season as speculation rumbled over his future, Cantwell remained at Carrow Road and battled his way back into Daniel Farke's side.

He proved to be a key figure again as Norwich won the Championship title, Cantwell securing his third promotion already in his young career - two with his boyhood club and one during a loan spell at Fortuna Sittard.

In an interview with The Athletic following last year's promotion, Cantwell said: “I think I’m probably playing some of my best stuff now."

However, despite providing six goals and seven assists last campaign, the 23-year-old struggled to make an early impact in the top-flight this time around and soon found himself struggling for match minutes.

Following Farke's dismissal, Dean Smith was appointed and tried to revive that spark in Cantwell, before also dropping him out the squad.

In need of a fresh challenge, Cherries came calling, with Scott Parker enticing him back to the second tier for a loan spell, which could turn permanent in the summer.

His quality has been evident already in his two appearances for his new club over the past week, as he looks to reignite his career on the south coast.

"It’s nice to be here, definitely," said Cantwell.

"It’s something that happened pretty late for me in the window, but as soon as I had a conversation with the manager, it seemed pretty clear to me this would be the right move.

"I’m going to be playing in a position that I deem to be more favourable for myself. I literally cannot wait to get going. I’ve had a very good experience in this division and I want to do it again.

"In football, things can change very quickly. There’s no point resting on it or sitting on it, you have to do what’s best for your career and at 23 years old, I need to be playing games of football.

"I’ve got a lot of development to do and the only way I really think that I can develop is by playing games and being under a manager like the manager we’ve got here, I know he’s only going to make me a better footballer as well. It was a bit of a no-brainer for me."

He added: "I’ve always said ever since I was a kid, I think you are two types of player – I think you are one with confidence and one without. A player with confidence is the best version of themselves. Unfortunately the one without is probably not.

"But you can only get that through playing games. You can’t click your fingers and just be in form. You need to play, you need to get a run of games in and that’s why I’m here."

Cantwell missed just one Premier League game in the 2019-20 season.

Asked how tough it was to go from being one of the key men to struggling for game-time, Cantwell said: "I can’t lie to you, it’s been difficult. It’s easy for people externally to look at the situation and basically guess at what’s happened and look at it and take what they want.

"For me, I’m very lucky, I’ve got a great base around me, I’ve got a brilliant family, brilliant friends that always give me the best advice, not just for myself but for my career.

"The opportunity to come here, the opportunity to play, the opportunity to potentially get promoted back to the Premier League is something I couldn’t turn down."

He added: "It’s tough. There’s no hiding that. There’s things in football that you don’t ever really plan for, that you don’t ever really think will happen and they do. You have to react to it. I’m young enough to be in the position where I kind of understand it, but at the same time I’m hungry enough and have got aspirations to go and do my own thing as well.

"I think as soon as it became a possibility, it was definitely the right thing for me to do and I think you can’t dwell on things for too long, not just in football but in life, you have to move on, accept it and go on to the next thing."

So, with Cantwell keen to move on from a tough few months at Norwich, how is finding his new surroundings?

"I’ve had a little wander. I got lost a couple of times! But I think that’s to be expected," he said.

"It seems like a lovely area. Obviously I haven’t seen it in the summer yet, which everyone seems to tell me is the right place to be, but I’m happy here. It’s been a really smooth transition for me.

"It’s got a good reputation, Bournemouth! Obviously area is a thing as well. You need to make a move you think is going to work for you and I definitely think I’ve made the right decision in that sense."

But one part of the area he is not going to be making the most of, is the sea.

"I have got a fear of sharks," Cantwell admitted.

"I don’t know what it is. I mean, I don’t think there’s loads of people queuing up saying they want to stroke a shark!

"I’m not really a lover of not knowing what’s below me! So I’ll probably steer out to be honest."

Cantwell swaps one seaside resort for another this weekend, with Cherries heading to Blackpool tomorrow (3pm), looking to tighten their grip on a top-two spot in the Championship.

And boss Parker is hoping the former England under-21 international can continue to get back to the levels he was hitting a year ago.

"He’s got a massive point to prove really," said Parker.

"I think where Todd was probably 12 months ago, six months ago, it was very different to where he is now. I think he’ll be the first to admit that.

"Hopefully we’re going to give him a platform and give him something to go and produce the levels of performance that I think we all come to recognise and see last time in the Premier League and in the Championship when he got promoted with Norwich.

"He’s not played a lot of football, but the boy has got huge quality and he's going to help us, we just need to tread carefully with him."