Bournemouth insists Alex Scott is not for sale after rejecting bids from Arsenal and Manchester United

Bournemouth insists Alex Scott is not for sale after rejecting bids from Arsenal and Manchester United The Cherries have turned down a £59M offer from Man United and an Arsenal enquiry, valuing their prized midfielder at around £80M Share Add us on Google by Editorial Team Jul. 7, 2026 Bournemouth has drawn a line in the sand. The south-coast club has told every interested Premier League side the same thing: Alex Scott is not moving this summer, at any price.

That message has now been delivered to some of English football’s biggest clubs. Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City have all been rebuffed, with Bournemouth making clear their 22-year-old midfielder is central to their plans going forward. The bids that went nowhere Manchester United’s approach was the most concrete of the lot.

The club submitted a £59M bid for Scott, which Bournemouth rejected outright. Arsenal’s interest arrived around June 29, though it never escalated beyond an enquiry. Bournemouth shut that down too, before it could develop into anything resembling a formal offer.

The gap between what clubs are willing to pay and what Bournemouth actually wants tells the real story here. The club has set an internal valuation of approximately £80M for Scott, a figure that places him firmly in the conversation with the Premier League’s most expensive midfielders. Advertisement Chelsea and Manchester City also circled, and received the same answer.

The Cherries are not entertaining negotiations. Why Bournemouth is digging in Scott’s current contract runs until 2028, which gives Bournemouth meaningful leverage. They are not a club scrambling to cash in before a deal expires.

They hold the cards. That leverage has not stopped the club from pursuing a contract extension regardless. Bournemouth has already made multiple extension offers to Scott’s camp in 2026, with those conversations reportedly beginning as far back as March or April.

The club wants to extend his deal and push the expiry date further out, removing any future negotiating pressure before it builds. The fact that Scott has not yet agreed to an extension is the one detail that adds a layer of tension to an otherwise straightforward situation. Bournemouth’s public stance is total retention.

The private reality, where a player has reportedly declined contract offers from his current club, introduces at least some uncertainty about where this ends. For now, Bournemouth’s position is that Scott’s personal stance on a new deal does not change their transfer policy. He will not be sold this window.

Full stop. What this means for the clubs involved Manchester United’s situation is more pointed. Submitting a £59M bid only to have it turned down signals that United either genuinely believed Bournemouth would negotiate, or was testing the water to understand the club’s resolve.

The £80M valuation Bournemouth has placed on Scott is not arbitrary. It reflects both his age and the increasing scarcity of elite midfield talent in the Premier League market. At 22, Scott sits in the sweetest spot for a buying club: old enough to contribute immediately, young enough to appreciate in value.

For Chelsea and Manchester City, the lack of a formal bid suggests interest that never hardened into genuine pursuit. Both clubs probed the market and found the door closed. Bournemouth’s calculus is straightforward.

Scott under contract until 2028, valued at £80M, is an asset that does not depreciate quickly. Selling him for £59M to a rival club that will benefit from his development is a worse outcome than keeping him for another season and either extending or selling at closer to their asking price in a future window. For now, Andoni Iraola’s squad retains one of its most valuable assets, and the Premier League’s biggest spenders are back to the drawing board in their midfield search.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy. SOCCER Bournemouth insists Alex Scott is not for sale after rejecting bids from Arsenal and Manchester United The Cherries have turned down a £59M offer from Man United and an Arsenal enquiry, valuing their prized midfielder at around £80M by Editorial Team Jul.

7, 2026 Share Add us on Google Bournemouth has drawn a line in the sand. The south-coast club has told every interested Premier League side the same thing: Alex Scott is not moving this summer, at any price. That message has now been delivered to some of English football’s biggest clubs.

Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City have all been rebuffed, with Bournemouth making clear their 22-year-old midfielder is central to their plans going forward. The bids that went nowhere Manchester United’s approach was the most concrete of the lot. The club submitted a £59M bid for Scott, which Bournemouth rejected outright.

Arsenal’s interest arrived around June 29, though it never escalated beyond an enquiry. Bourn