Steve Lansdown's tribute to Alex Scott as he seals £25m move from Bristol City to Bournemouth Alex Scott becomes the third Bristol City academy talent to swap Ashton Gate for Vitality Stadium Bristol City owner Steve Lansdown says it’s been a privilege to watch Alex Scott over the last two seasons after the Robins received a club record fee from Bournemouth to successfully prise the England Under-20 international away from Ashton Gate. Scott has signed an undisclosed "long-term" contract at Vitality Stadium - believed to be five years - having undergone a medical on the south coast on Wednesday after weeks of negotiations throughout the summer in which the Robins remained resolute in their valuation of the midfielder. Bristol Live understands Bournemouth have agreed to pay £25million plus appearance-based add-ons for the 19-year-old, which exceeds the £20m sale of Adam Webster to Brighton & Hove Albion four years ago. To Lansdown, Scott is more than just a player being sold, given he is from Guernsey, the island where the City owner has called home for several years, while he also represents a success story for the Robins academy having been brought to the club in December 2019 and developed through the age groups. Alex has developed into a top-class footballer and we have been privileged to watch him play over the past few years and wear the Bristol City shirt,” said Lansdown. “We are sorry to see Alex go but Bournemouth have met our valuation and this is an opportunity for him to follow his football dream in the Premier League. He goes with our blessing and will always have a special place in the hearts of Bristol City fans.” The Cherries had failed with a £15m bid earlier in the summer, while Wolves were also unsuccessful with two approaches before frustration over their inability to get the deal concluded, in-part led to the departure of head coach Julen Lopetegui earlier this week. Scott also becomes the third City academy talent to swap BS3 for BH7 after Lloyd Kelly's departure in 2019 and Antoine Semenyo in January. In total the transfers are worth more than £50m, however do sit with a sense of unease and frustration within the fanbase. Scott is injured for Bournemouth’s Premier League opener against West Ham on Saturday and will undergo a period of rehabilitation on the knee problem which prevented him from playing for City last weekend, but should become an important player under new head coach Andoni Iraola. Although the Cherries interest in the teenager dates back more than a decade. According to the Athletic, Bournemouth have been monitoring Scott since he was eight, and although they briefly had the midfielder in their academy when he was 14, it proved an uncomfortable time for the player and he returned to Guernsey. He rediscovered his love of the game playing local football in the Channel Islands before he was brought to City for a trial in 2019 by Brian Tinnion, where he scored a perfect hat-trick and was promptly signed in December 2019. After being brought into the first-team set-up by Nigel Pearson and given his debut in April 2021 he has gone on to make 91 appearances for the Robins over two full seasons in the Championship and was named the division’s Young Player of the Year last season. Speaking on Wednesday after confirming news of Scott’s medical, Pearson admitted he was “disappointed” the club had agreed to sell their prized asset, but at least some of that £25m should now be made available to the manager for further reinforcements. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/alex-scott-bristol-city-bournemouth-8669171
Fair play to him.. hope he goes on and has a great career and won’t be surprised if he plays for England seniors, may even be in the squad for the next World Cup!
wow some signing this if it was true-however Boro and sheff utd are interested as well -quality striker this please log in to view this image Robins Hub @RobinsHub · 15h | TRANSFER NEWS Bristol City have enquired about the potential signing of Cameron Archer from Aston Villa More to follow… please log in to view this image
Just caught that one on twitter, could be good, as the old adage says," There is never smoke without fire"
Here is a complete list of LJ signings compiled by the Bristol Post, Alex Scott is not metioned - https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/every-bristol-city-signing-made-3776658
Academy Manager Gary Probert, along with City Loans Manager Brian Tinnion signed up Alex, LJ was head coach https://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/alex-scott-joins-city/
Oh Supcon, you still don’t get it do you! LJ only signed the DUDS. All the decent players were signed by others - LJ just happened to be head coach at the time and had nothing to do with them. He was too busy in France personally getting Diony to sign.
If we are going down that route, Ayling, Kodjia,Bobby Reid, Joe Bryan, Kelly, all sold for big money whiich the luvvies claimed made big profit for Bristol City by LJ, all signed up by Cotts or previous manager regimes.
So, you’re now saying that it was Tinnion who is responsible for the loan signings of Diony & Kent, amongst others, not in fact LJ?
Now you are just being silly, I agreed with you yesterday, as you stated, Ashton and LJ had a shared responsibility for all the signings and issues during their time span, the link I put up just now came from our official site, it states Gary Probert and Brian Tinnion (who were both resonsible for all acadamey activities) signed Scotty, obviously LJ was head coach, no denial You implied Alex was one of the 65, you are wrong.
All the above proves, rightly or wrongly, how the appointment of LJ split, and still does, our fan base.
Banter aside, here's what I think: Aside from a few 'special' players (ie Tammy Abraham, where LJ really DID go to Stamford Bridge and presented to their board), the Head Coach role has little to do with the purchase or loan of players. It's the scout's role to find them. The Head Coach might be 'aware' of SOME of them - ie when trying to fill a gap caused by injuries etc he might have an opinion, but as for scouting, negotiating terms and dealing with agents that's someone else's role. I think this could be where Cotts fell out with the board - he tried to buy players and negotiate terms - which wasn't in his remit to do (BTW I'm not saying that's what SHOULD happen, just saying what I think happened) The Head Coach would have very little to do with selecting who is good enough to JOIN the academy as a kid. However, he would probably have a say in who is selected FROM the academy and offered a professional contract. The Head Coach can be credited for any improvement in a player's game (and value) when playing for him in the first team, either starting or as a sub. Unless there has been an irreversible falling-out with a player (ie Cottrill under GJ), the Head Coach would have very little, if any, say as to who was sold and when. That would be a financial decision, but with due consideration to the needs of the team (ie they wouldn't sell a striker or goalkeeper if we had no backup replacement, but if we DID have a backup then it would definitely be considered if the price was right - with or without the Head Coach's endorsement). So, again in my opinion, LJ can take some credit in the development of Reid, Webster, Bryan, Pack, Ayling, Kodjia, Brownhill, Kelly and Flint. The credit is proportionally shared with Cotts who also played some of those players and contributed to their development, according to which manager they played the most games for. LJ CAN'T be given credit for Scott, or any of the current youngsters who never played for him. (I was teasing in my previous post ) By the same token, The Head Coach can't be blamed for ALL the duds either, although the regime of which he was part of can be. There was a very strange strategy for buying players in place at that time but I'm not sure the Head Coach was active in every purchase or loan. If we are going to blame the Head Coach for everything that we don't like, because he was employed by the 'regime' at the time, so therefore complicit in it, then we need to be consistent and blame Cotts for his failed purchase attempts - or Nige for Simpson - but I know people won't want to do that. With Cotts - and Nige, the activities of the board and the team manager are (rightly IMHO) very clearly separated out in people's minds on here (and on OTIB), whereas with regards to LJ they are all merged into one and LJ is blamed, because he was 'part of that setup'. It's THAT which I don't like - its not fair - and that's the reason I tend to defend him on here. I honestly think that LJ was an ok manager - not great, not terrible - just ok, working with the players at his disposal. Same for me as he was a player. The money that was spent during his tenure was negotiated by the BOARD, not by LJ personally. Mistakes were made and money was wasted, but that's not ALL down to the Head Coach personally. My opinion only of course. I have no insider knowledge on what goes on at board level at BS3
