Learning how to lose has been Cherry good for Ake

NATHAN AKE’S improvemplepnlptluplnpdpe: rplepdlpdlpielplpl Howe has not just been on the pitch.

Bournemouth’s Dutch rising starrehfa:splepalprpnlpeldpptlo treat triuhmepahda2nhdefaadilu: with the maturiptylpltphlapltphlpalpsl helped him cope with the hype around him.

The turning point came after a last-gasp defeat to Manchester City last season (Ake reacting, right).

“I had a bad game and I always expect a lot of myself,” he said. “When I got home my missus was there, and her family, and I hardly spoke.

“I didn’t want to go out of the house the whole week because I didn’t want to be seen! I just stayed in the house and did nothing.

“After that – this year, especially – I told myself I had to change. You can’t live like that. The manager told me: ‘If you dwell on it too much, you’ll keep it in you, and maybe do it again.

“As a kid, losing or playing badly used to tear me up. It stayed in me for weeks.

“Obviously, you still have the hunger to win games.

its better just to analyze what went wrong calmly, than being angry the whole time.”

At 24, Ake’s career is thriving, thanks to the regular first-team action for which he traded life on the bench at Chelsea.

But the Cherries star remains indebted to several senior players at Stamford Bridge, who helped him stay grounded.

“John Terry, David Luiz and Paulo Ferreira were my influences,” he said. “They’d see people get into the first team, then disappear, because they thought they’d made it already.

“So, they’d always try to make sure you stayed on it. To make you a better player.

“At 17, when those players speak to you, you listen, because they’ve reached the top. They’ve lifted trophies”

Today Ake faces a City side that lifted the EFL Cup last weekend. He rates Sergio Aguero as one of the toughest strikers he has ever faced.

“He’s very good at holding up the ball. He’s very strong. He makes runs in behind and, when he gets the chances, it’s game over. It’s tough,” said Ake.

As always, the defender will be supported today by his brother Cedric, mum Caroline, and dad Moise – all key figures in his success story. Cedric gave up his own promising career in Holland for Nathan to develop his in England.

“My brother came from Holland to Chelsea with me, when I was 16,” he said. “I had to go in digs and he lived in Kingston. He basically gave his life up for me to have someone there on the weekends.

“We’ve always been close. He is four years older and was a really good player.

“At the age of 18 or 19, he got a move to Ado Den Haag, a professional club. He could have made the first team.

“But I went to Chelsea and he said, ‘OK I want to support you and help you’, so basically he gave up his football to help me.”

Ake has found family-club Bournemouth to be a place where the support network is equally strong.

“This club is quite tight and that makes us tough. So we know we can come out of any bad times,” he added.