Reality may be starting to sink in a bit at AFC Bournemouth, who are now said to be ready to consider offers starting at £80m for Alex Scott in January — a fair discount on the previously reported £100m fee just to get them to the negotiating table.
Sky Sports claim that “an offer in excess of £80m with add-ons would have to be taken seriously” by the Cherries in January, especially if they were “practically safe” from relegation. That latter stipulation is a bit silly of course: if the Cherries were fighting
for survival, the risk of Scott’s value cratering on relegation would probably be a big enough threat that they might even consider lower offers. (And if not, a nice discount on their eventual drop may be worth the wait anyway, especially with Chelsea said to be valuing Scott only around £60m.)
The increased reporting around this situation in the last couple days appears to be fairly clear indication that Bournemouth are hoping to engineer a major bidding war for their 23-year-old prized midfielder while they still can, though only Chelsea and Liverpool have been linked with potential January moves. The other big names already addressed their midfield concerns with (other) big-money moves in the summer, so they would be less likely to get involved in any such scenario in the winter window.
Plus, it sounds like if we just wait, the price will just keep dropping. Perfect!
