Bournemouth would welcome back £20m Nathan Aké with ‘open arms’

At the start of the summer, Nathan Aké was rumored to be near the top of AFC Bournemouth’s summer wishlist, alongside Chelsea teammate Asmir Begović in a combined outlay of about £30m. Begović has already joined the Cherries for £10m, which leaves the rest for Aké.

Aké’s future is not quite that clear at the moment, but his return to Chelsea didn’t exactly live up to the successes he was having during the first half of last season with Bournemouth and a return has been on cards ever since. Increasingly, that return was rumored to be a permanent transfer rather than just another loan, of which Aké has had more than we care to count.

Into that narrative dropped a story over the weekend from The Sun that Bournemouth were closing in on said £20m transfer. Slowly, this has been picked up by various other outlets, including the local Bournemouth Echo and Sky Sports. That doesn’t actually lend any more credence to the Sun’s story, but it does fit the established narrative and it would not be a great surprise to see it come to fruition.

Especially since Aké would be welcomed back with open arms by Eddie Howe’s charges.

“I thought he was a very good acquisition for us last season. It was a shame he had to go back to Chelsea when he did. He was a great person to have in the squad and he scored some important goals for us. We would welcome him back with open arms.”

-Charlie Daniels; source: Daily Echo

Daniels is hoping that Bournemouth’s accomplishments and great club atmosphere will be selling points for future reinforcements as they look to extend their Premier League stay. Aké certainly has spoken highly of his time there as well. Of course he’s also spoken of his desire to still try to make it Chelsea — he’s just 22 still — so nothing’s certain at this point. I have a hunch we’ll find out soon enough however.

Stay tuned.