Simon Bennett

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Free Agent
17 Nov 2032
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Simon Bennett

264 Edition

The Bournemouth Sentinel

18 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Álvaro Rodríguez was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Bournemouth turn down Chesterfield for Courtney Clarke

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Marcus Tavernier falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Transfer targets

No deal for Charlie Webster at that price

Bournemouth offered $380.0K; Burton Albion said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Squad

Ayanda Tibe is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Boardroom

9 academy players handed senior numbers at Bournemouth

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Match

Bournemouth cannot find the net

3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Market

Charles Turner steps up from the Bournemouth academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Charles Turner has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

Bournemouth promote Simon Bennett from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Simon Bennett has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

In brief