The Times - UK (2020-07-28)

60 2GM Tuesday July 28 2020 | the times

SportFootball

Eddie Howe will speak to Bourne-

mouth’s owner this week to decide

whether he will stay on as manager.

The 42-year-old will want to know

how much Maxim Demin, the club’s

Russian owner, who lives in Switzer-

land, will be prepared to invest to give

his side a realistic chance of gaining

promotion back to the Premier League

next season.

Howe feels a sense of duty to Bourne-

mouth, where he has spent 20 years in

spells as a player and manager from

1994, but he also does not want to be

treading water in the Championship if

he does not have a squad of sufficient

strength to get out of it.

Those who are close to the Bourne-

mouth manager say that he wants to

discuss his future with his family but

would not be able to live with himself if

he walks away from the final year of his

contract. Howe has looked increasingly

other clubs are expected to follow suit.

Bournemouth valued the centre back

at £70 million when Leicester City were

interested last summer.

Bournemouth also expect that Josh

King and Callum Wilson, the strikers,

will be sold. Wilson joined in 2014 and

his 20 goals helped them to promotion.

After he scored 14 times last season he

was linked with a move to West Ham

United. He hit only eight league goals

this season.

There are question marks over

Jefferson Lerma, Aaron Ramsdale and

David Brooks. Ramsdale has aspira-

tions to make England’s squad for the

European Championship next sum-

mer, reducing the likelihood of the

goalkeeper being prepared to move to a

club to sit on the substitutes’ bench.

Jack Grealish fears that he could be

priced out of a move to Manchester

United after Aston Villa insisted that

they would not accept less than

£80 million for their captain.

Grealish, the 24-year-old attacking

midfielder, is due to hold talks with

Villa this week about his future after his

goal against West Ham United kept his

boyhood club in the Premier League.

United are interested in signing

Grealish but now Villa will be playing in

Grealish worried £80m price tag could scupper United interest

the top flight next season, they are

under no pressure to sell their star

player. It is understood that Villa are

unwilling to lower their £80 million

valuation of the England Under-21

international, who scored eight goals

and provided six assists this season.

United are unlikely to pay such an

amount. The club drew up two budgets,

one based on Europa League qualifica-

tion and the other for a top-four finish,

which they achieved thanks to a 2-0

win over Leicester City on Sunday.

Although United are expected to

receive a £100 million windfall from

their qualification for the Champions

League, the club have been impacted

severely by the financial crisis and have

cautioned against the idea that they

will go on a splurge this summer.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the United

manager, has other areas in which he

needs to strengthen, such as the right-

wing position, up front and centre back.

Dean Smith, the Aston Villa manag-

er, partied with Grealish and the rest of

his squad on Sunday night but refused

to say whether his captain would re-

main at the club. “I gave him a few shots

and got him to sign a new five-year con-

tract,” Smith joked in a talkSPORT in-

terview. “It’s a chat for another day.”

Villa yesterday parted company with

their sporting director Jesús García

Pitarch, who oversaw their £140 million

recruitment drive last summer.

United have distanced themselves

from speculation that they had lodged

an £89 million bid for Jadon Sancho, the

Borussia Dortmund winger. Sancho,

20, wants to leave and the club are

willing to sell him but United are a long

way short of Dortmund’s £110 million

valuation.

United have drawn up a shortlist of

four centre backs they are considering

signing. Pau Torres, the 23-year-old

Villarreal defender, is one, as is the

Bournemouth defender Nathan Aké.

Chris Smalling will return from his

loan spell with Roma next season un-

less the Italian club make a suitable of-

fer. United will listen to offers for Phil

Jones, Andreas Pereira, Jesse Lingard,

Marcos Rojo and Alexis Sánchez.

Beckham’s mental anguish, News, page 5

Paul Hirst

Howe’s future hangs on new budget

Gary Jacob drained in recent weeks as the
likelihood of the club returning to the
second tier for the first time since the
2014-15 season increased. Their fate
was sealed despite beating Everton 3-1
on Sunday.
Bournemouth’s board will have
questions for Howe about their results
given that they sit midway in a table of
net spending by Premier League clubs
over the past five years.
In their first four Premier League
seasons they won 11, 12, 11 and 13
matches respectively, compared with
nine this campaign. Results started to
deteriorate in the middle of last season:
they lost 11 and drew four of their final
20 league matches, and their form went
the same way this season.
There will be no fire sale of players,
although the transfer fees they can
expect to receive will be lower because
the club’s hand is weaker after
relegation. Manchester City have
lodged their interest in Nathan Aké and

The impact of relegation on their

financial position is highlighted by their

most recent accounts. In March they

announced a £32.4 million pre-tax loss

and their wages-to-turnover ratio is 84

per cent. Their match-day income was

only £5 million because their Vitality

Stadium has a capacity of 11,329.

They generated £115 million of their

£131 million in income through the

2018-19 Premier League broadcasting

deal. They will now have to rely on

parachute payments, which are esti-

mated to be worth £43 million next

season.

Bournemouth’s rise to the Premier

League was financed by loans made

by Demin, who is a billionaire and owns

a petrochemical company. He is

superstitious and rarely attends

matches as he feels it could bring

bad luck.

Demin will not dismiss Howe, but

what he says will shape whether the

manager decides to stay.

SEAN RYAN/IPS/REX; CHRISTOPHER LEE; ROBIN JONES; RICHARD HEATHCSEAN RYAN/IPS/REX; CHRIS OTE/GETTY IMAGES

Ismaïla Sarr,

22

Fast and raw winger who

contributed five goals and six

assists in the league after a

club-record £30 million

move last summer.

Valuation

£50 million

Nathan Aké,

25

Composed former Chelsea

centre back who wants to take

a step up and attracted

interest from

Manchester City.

Valuation

£50 million

Relegated

— and now

in demand

Todd Cantwell, 22

Scored six goals

and claimed two

assists in his first

season in Premier

League. Linked

with Leicester City

and Newcastle

United. Valuation

£30 million

David Brooks, 23

Talented, tricky

winger returned

from a knee injury

to play nine times

this season.

Valuation

£40 million

Abdoulaye

Doucouré, 27

At his best he

breaks up play

and drives from

midfield but was

below par since

restart. Everton’s

£36 million offer

was rejected last

summer. Valuation

£40 million

Josh King, 28

Striker who scored

12 league goals in

2018-2019 but in

the last year of

contract. Valuation

£15 million

We made mistakes this season, admit Watford chiefs

Watford’s hierarchy

have admitted to

making “mistakes” after

being relegated from

the Premier League

(Matt Lawton writes).

Defeat by Arsenal on

Sunday sent Watford

down after the dismissal

of Nigel Pearson, their

third sacking of the

season. The owner,

Gino Pozzo, and the

chief executive, Scott

Duxbury, yesterday

issued a letter to fans,

acknowledging their

role in the campaign.

“There will be lessons

learned and changes

made,” the statement

read. “But, from today,

we move forward.

We have to accept a

different challenge.”

6 The former Watford

manager Javi Gracia

has been named as the

new coach of Valencia

on a two-year deal.