Former Liverpool striker Dominic Solanke has been ‘transformed’ at Bournemouth with one-time Premier League chairman Simon Jordan seeing very little to separate him from Brentford’s £100 million talisman Ivan Toney.
If Brentford want a nine-figure sum for their own star centre-forward – and Sky Sports say that they do – then how much could AFC Bournemouth demand for a man who has been outscored by only Mo Salah and Erling Haaland in 2023/24?
That, for now, is a rather moot point.
HITC Football understands that, despite links with Arsenal and Newcastle United, Bournemouth have no plans to cash in on Dominic Solanke this month, regarding of how big the potential bids may be.
Former Liverpool striker in stunning form
The one-time Chelsea youngster famously found the net just once in 27 games for Liverpool, and former Crystal Palace chief Simon Jordan could hardly be more effusive in his praise for a striker making a mockery of the critics who questioned his top-flight credentials.
“Solanke, I think he’s transformed as a player,“ Jordan tells talkSPORT (11 January, 11.50am), the England international playing the best football of his career under Andoni Iraola.
“You have to give a lot of credit to the coach and the way that Bournemouth are set up. If you look at the goals he’s scored and the hat-trick he scored against Nottingham Forest (in December), his movement, his touch, his confidence…
“Goalscorers thrive on confidence. And if Ivan Toney is operating at a level at Brentford, and people are categorising him at a certain price bracket and looking at him as a ‘big football club player’, then there’s no reason why Bournemouth won’t be getting bids if he keeps scoring the goals that he is.”
12 goals for Bournemouth in 2023/24
With the European Championships only a few months away, and Toney yet to feature this season due to an FA-imposed betting ban, Solanke must surely be a dark horse for a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad.
Ian Wright, the legendary Arsenal striker, goes as far as to suggest that, if the Premier League’s Player of the Season award was shifted forward a few months, there should only be one winner.
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