AFC Bournemouth have completed the signing of Siriki Dembele from Peterborough United for an undisclosed fee.
The 25-year-old, who was set to be out-of-contract in the summer has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract at Dean Court after handing in a transfer request with Peterborough United, according to local newspaper Peterborough Today.
The local newspaper has also reported that they believe the deal is worth in-excess of £1.5million, which brings somewhat of a windfall to Grimsby Town who are to benefit from 25% of any profit earned over the £200,000 they received following Dembele’s move in June 2018.
Dembele has often taken up a wide role for Championship strugglers Peterborough United, where he has scored 5 goals and claimed 1 assist this season. Last season, aiding his side to promotion from League One he scored 11 goals and claimed 10 assists.
After the deal was announced Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony posted a video on social media talking through the January transfer window from his perspective.
Quick video re transfer deadline day & recent events 👇🏻💙 https://t.co/Gn4aKQzt0T
— Darragh MacAnthony (@DMAC102) January 31, 2022
In his post on Instagram, MacAnthony discussed how the transfer of Dembele to AFC Bournemouth came about and discussed the players recent injury…
“…obviously he’s been unavailable for our last three games. Trust me, we’d have loved him to have been available, but he said he had a sore foot.
“We obviously sent him for scans, went through the whole thing, not available. The scans didn’t show anything up, but obviously, the boy didn’t feel like he could play.
“He then came to me 20 minutes before the start of the game on Saturday, not ideal, to say that he wanted to go to only one club.
“We had bids accepted from Birmingham, Blackburn and obviously then Bournemouth were kind of at the same stage they’d been for a week or so and he made it very clear that he wanted to join Bournemouth. I’m always transparent – at that stage, I said ‘look, I have something more important going on and that’s a game of football against Sheffield United because staying in this league is more important to us than anything else.
“So anyway, after the game, I spoke to the manager, we both agreed to do the deal with Bournemouth, let him go…”
Your say…
Waz afcb wrote…
If it happens I like this signing. Exciting winger coming into the prime of his career. Type of player that has the potential to step up to the next level and one we could also build the team around on a long term contract if we don’t go up. Tore league one apart and five goals this season for a very poor posh side. Always looks impressive when I’ve seen him. – Join the conversation, click here.
