Dev squad diaries (day two): Michael Dacosta Gonzalez

While out in France for the Tournoi Européen U21, Cherries development squad players will be making first-person diary entries, with group stage games against AS Saint-Étienne, AS Monaco and EA Guingamp following two days of training during their time there.

It’s been a good second day out here, especially because I’ve been wanting to train for so long after being injured.

That was quite tough having to do the same thing over and over again every day, so it’s nice to be back amongst it.

Being out here with the boys is a whole other level of experience compared to being away in Glasgow with the under-18s last year.

But it’s still nice with everyone being together, it’s all good fun! I’m really enjoying the facilities, too. The balance of training, gym, food and then chill is really nice.

At lunch today we had quite a special moment as well. There were lots of young players asking for autographs and one wanted my training top.

I said I couldn’t give that but said that when I went back to England, I’d send him a shirt to this address here.

We ended up managing to sort it right away and I’m happy that he was happy with it.

I remember being their age at one point which wasn’t all that long ago and I thought getting the lads to sign a shirt was a nice thing to do because I would’ve wanted the same at their age; I just wanted to give something back to them.

Tomorrow our games get started and we’re all excited to be playing out here and, hopefully, I can get myself on the scoresheet!

We’ve got some tough challenges ahead of us but I’m ready for it and excited to be playing in France.

I’ve never played here before, and I’ve never actually been here before! So, it’s a really exciting trip and we can’t wait to get started.

- Michael