DEAL CONFIRMED: Liverpool forward agrees Bournemouth move

Liverpool forward agrees Bournemouth move

There’s more and more activity between Bournemouth and Liverpool.

Richard Hughes made the step to link-up with Michael Edwards at Anfield last year. This year, Liverpool look to have signed Milos Kerkez from the Cherries.

Meanwhile, over the last few years, the likes of Jordon Ibe, Dominic Solanke and Brad Smith have all been sold by Michael Edwards to Bournemouth.

Some of those transfers were varying successes for the club, but they were all great pieces of business for Liverpool, with the Reds pretty much getting the maximum out of each sale.

Now, though it’s Bournemouth who could have secured a coup from Liverpool, and they have done it by securing a talented youngster from the club’s academy.

The Instagram page LFC.academy posted on their account about Cornelius Akaunu, who they claim has agreed a move to Bournemouth.

This agreement was confirmed by the player’s own Instagram profile, which now includes Bournemouth’s account in his bio to confirm that he belongs to the Cherries.

Akaunu is a talented young forward in Liverpool’s academy. Only 16-years-old, he has been mostly playing for the club’s U17 side and has been at the club since U9 level.

Over the course of the last few months, it has been apparent that he was not going to stay at the club.

Akaunu went on trials to Arsenal and Tottenham while still at Liverpool towards the end of last season. But it seems like Bournemouth have won the race for his signature.

One thing that’s guaranteed is that the pathway to the first team will certainly be a lot easier for Akaunu at Bournemouth than it would have been at Liverpool.

That will now be the young attacker’s goal, although initially he will likely be playing for the club’s U18 and U21 sides.

From Liverpool’s perspective, losing Akaunu is a blow. You never want to lose a player who has been at the academy since U9 level. However, it’s very clear that he sees his future away from the club, for now.

Dean Huijsen has already joined Real Madrid, and both Milos Kerkez and Illia Zabarnyi are expected to follow the Spaniard away from the south coast.

To make matters worse, Antoine Semenyo and Justin Kluivert have also been linked with moves to Tottenham and Bayer Leverkusen respectively.

Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Andoni Iraola’s side will struggle to cope with the sheer number of departures this summer.

‘Bournemouth to have a real problem’, says Wyness

Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness insisted that Bournemouth’s situation is different from Brighton’s in the past as they don’t have the experience of coping with player departures.