Africa-Press – Lesotho. Bournemouth have signed Liverpool winger Ben Doak for an initial £20m with a further £5m in add-ons.
The 19-year-old has signed a five-year contract and becomes Bournemouth’s fourth summer acquisition.
Doak was left out of Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday night.
“I’m buzzing to be here,” Doak said.
“I feel like it’s the right time for me and it’s a great opportunity to play regular football at the highest level. It feels like the perfect fit.
“The team play very nice football. It’s fast and it really suits my game, so I felt like I couldn’t say no to the chance to play here.”
Doak has won six caps for Scotland and spent last season on loan at Middlesbrough in the Championship, scoring three times and recording seven assists in 24 matches.
Bournemouth are understood to have beaten interest from other Premier League clubs, including Leeds, as well as Portuguese side Porto.
Doak’s move will give him a better chance of playing first-team football having featured just 10 times for Liverpool since joining from Celtic in 2022.
It takes Liverpool’s sales to about £200m this summer, having spent more than £270m on new signings and a £110m bid for Alexander Isak rejected by Newcastle.
Liverpool’s major sales have included Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich in a £65.5m deal, Darwin Nunez to Al-Hilal for £46.3m and academy player Jarrell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen for £35m.
Caoimhin Kelleher, Tyler Morton and Nat Phillips have also been sold, while the club received £8.4m from Real Madrid to release Trent Alexander-Arnold early from his contract, though the Spanish club dispute this figure.
The sale of Doak means Liverpool have brought in about £85m in initial fees for the winger, Phillips, Alexander-Arnold, Kelleher, Quansah and Morton. The six players arrived as either youth players or development projects and cost the Reds an initial £600,000. The subsequent profit for players classed as ‘homegrown’ gives the Reds an immediate boost in terms of current profit and sustainability rule (PSR) calculations.
Bournemouth have also had a busy summer having sold Dango Ouattara to Brentford for £42.5m last week.
They already lost defenders Illia Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez for a combined total of about £150m to Paris St-Germain, Real Madrid and Liverpool respectively.
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said his side are “not where they want to be” before the defeat at Anfield and added “important movements” will be made before the transfer window closes on 1 September.
Goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic, left-back Adrien Truffert and centre-back Bafode Diakite have joined the club this summer, with January signing Eli Junior Kroupi also coming into the squad after finishing last season on loan at Lorient.
Sources say the Cherries are in the market for a further central defender and a striker to compete with Evanilson, with alternative option Enes Unal expected to be out with a major knee injury until November or December.
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