Bournemouth have seen an opening £8m offer rejected for highly-rated Bristol City striker Antoine Semenyo, according to reports.
The Cherries have made their first move to sign the Ghana international, with manager Gary O’Neil keen to add more attacking options to his squad.
The south coast side currently find themselves just one point outside the relegation zone, so Semenyo could potentially make a big difference if they can get a deal over the line.
According to BristolLive, Bournemouth’s offer falls short of Bristol City’s valuation for Semenyo, who has 18 months left on his current deal after the club triggered a 12-month extension last month to give them extra financial security.
The forward has been in decent form after solidifying his spot in City’s starting XI, after going on two successful loan spells to Newport County and Sunderland.
Overall, Semenyo has scored 20 goals in 142 appearances for Bristol City, as well as making 22 assists, giving him an average of 0.3 goal contributions per game.
He also picked up some valuable experience playing for Ghana at the World Cup, coming off the bench twice against Portugal and Uruguay.
At the age of 23, the forward has the potential to get even better, so it’s unsurprising to see several Premier League clubs interested in him.
Despite the growing interest, Robins boss Nigel Pearson has suggested the club do not necessarily need to sell their star man this month.
Speaking to in a recent press conference, Pearson said: “Antoine, we’ve activated his extension. We have to protect our interests.”
When asked if he could make signings without selling him, he added: “Yes, we can. But then you’ve got to remember we will still have to meet financial fair play regulations.
“Obviously, a sale would make that situation a lot easier to deal with, but the reality is that we would prefer to keep our best players.
“Our fanbase doesn’t want to know that we’re just looking to cash-in on our best players because why would they then look forward with any optimism.
“So, what we have to do is try and get the balance right.”
However, given the Robins’ current financial situation, you would think that any sizeable offer for Semenyo would be difficult to turn down.
As mentioned, O’Neil is desperate to add attacking quality to his squad and Bournemouth have been linked with numerous players this month.
TEAMtalk claims that the Cherries are firmly in the race for former player Arnaut Danjuma, while Everton, Spurs, PSV Eindhoven and Ajax are all also interested.
Bournemouth have also reportedly agreed on a deal to sign exciting Lorient winger Dango Outarra after their owner purchased a stake in the French club last week. However, this has not gone down at all well with the Lorient fans.
Nevertheless, if Bournemouth can get deals for Danjuma and Semenyo over the line, it would represent a very successful transfer window that could make the difference between relegation and survival.
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