Bournemouth opinion: Cherries have struck gold with Lloyd Kelly
According to the Daily Mail, Bournemouth have completed the signing of England U21 left-back Lloyd Kelly from Bristol City in a £13million deal.
Kelly was a target for both Arsenal and Liverpool but the 20-year-old ended up joining Bournemouth as he believed he had a greater chance of getting regular minutes at the south-coast club. (h/t Daily Mail)
The highly-rated youngster has become Bournemouth’s first major signing of the summer, as the Cherries continued their transfer policy of investing in homegrown talents.
Eddie Howe splashed £12million to sign Chris Mepham from Brentford back in the January window, while Dominic Solanke also made his move to the Vitality Stadium during the mid-season trading period for a fee of £19million.
The Cherries have shown a keen interest towards building a strong core of homegrown talents, with David Brooks, Lewis Cook, Jordon Ibe, Nathan Ake, Mepham and Solanke amongst those to have arrived at the Vitality Stadium in recent times.
Lloyd Kelly has become the latest homegrown addition to Bournemouth’s ranks and the Cherries have every reason to celebrate his arrival at the club, having managed to beat off competition from Premier League giants Arsenal and Liverpool in the race to sign the highly-rated left-back.
A product of Bristol City’s youth system, Kelly made his senior professional debut for the Robins in 2017 and enjoyed his first-team breakthrough in the Championship in the 2017-18 season.
He only played a bit-part role last season but he really came of age this term for Bristol City, establishing himself as a regular at left-back and earning rave reviews for his performances.
Kelly made a total of 32 appearances for the Robins in the Championship this past season and earned plenty of plaudits, as Lee Johnson’s side fell agonisingly short of a playoff spot.
However, his consistently impressive performances didn’t go unnoticed and the youngster has every reason to be ecstatic after securing a move to the Premier League with Bournemouth.
To put things into perspective, it is not difficult to see why the Cherries have, indeed, struck gold with the signing of Lloyd Kelly from Bristol City.
In fact, the player also made a sensible decision by snubbing moves to the top-six clubs to join Bournemouth, as it would offer him plenty of regular minutes in the Premier League to hone his skills and eventually take his game to the next level.
Bournemouth were also in need of bringing in reinforcements at left-back, following a long-term injury to first-choice Charlie Daniels back in April.
The veteran is likely to miss large chunks of the upcoming campaign, and although the Cherries had a much more established left-back in Diego Rico, the move to complete a deal for Kelly can be seen as a step in the right direction in relation to the club’s long-term plans.
Moreover, Rico made only 12 appearances this season in the Premier League and Howe ended up fielding Liverpool loanee Nathaniel Clyne at left-back towards the end of the campaign.
Centre-backs Steve Cook and Nathan Ake did reasonably well at the back this season, but Bournemouth, as a team, often left plenty to be desired in terms of defending. \
The Cherries conceded an unimpressive 70 goals in the Premier League this season, with Huddersfield Town and Fulham being the only other teams to have shipped more goals. Hence, the acquisition of a talented left-back like Lloyd Kelly definitely makes a lot of sense.
Also, Bournemouth signing Kelly, who can play both centre-back and left-back, should open the door for Aston Villa to sign Tyrone Mings permanently at the end of the season, although that might depend on whether the Lions manage to secure promotion to the Premier League.
Kelly has shown a level of maturity that belies his tender years, both in terms of decision-making and composure.
He has an extremely cool head on his young shoulders and has made a strong start to his career, meaning that it won’t be too difficult for him to make the step up to the Premier League next season.
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Conclusion
There are few very managers better than Eddie Howe when it comes to getting the best out of youngsters and Kelly has a good chance of realising his potential at Bournemouth should he continue his development in the right direction.
