"Antoine Semenyo's rise is a reminder the big clubs' scouting systems are not infallible, that not all players will flower at the same time. Fulham, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Reading and Tottenham rejected the schoolboy Semenyo. At 15, he took a year's absence from the game. A decade on, a circuitous route to the top alights at Manchester City, who beat a queue of big hitters to his signature."
"Pep Guardiola's squad has another player who pairs physical power with a high skill level. It also adds a long-throw specialist to the armoury; City are towards the bottom of the metrics in that voguish category. Semenyo's initial 62.5m fee fits City's practice, after the mixed results of lavishing 100m on Jack Grealish, of preferring to buy players at about that price point."
"Though Liverpool and Manchester United had interest in the summer, neither made the decisive move when the player's desire for a January move was clear. The prospect of the Ghana international and Jeremy Doku's rolling thunder either side of Erling Haaland is daunting. While Bournemouth's owner, the American billionaire Bill Foley, has ambitions to take his club into Europe on an annual basis, a delicate balance with profitability and sustainability regulations must be struck."
Antoine Semenyo was rejected by several big clubs as a schoolboy and took a year away from football at age 15. Ten years later he moved from Bournemouth to Manchester City for an initial 62.5m fee, a price aligned with City's recent transfer approach. Bournemouth has a track record of finding talent overlooked by elite clubs and securing pre-agreed valuations via contract extensions. City gain a physically powerful, highly skilled player and a long-throw specialist. Bournemouth faces financial constraints, including a high wages-to-revenue ratio and stadium capacity limits that make sustained European competition challenging.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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