Liverpool bought Milos Kerkez for £40 million from AFC Bournemouth in the summer transfer window.
AFC Bournemouth sporting director Tiago Pinto has opened up on why the club sold Milos Kerkez to Liverpool.
Andoni Iraola’s side finished ninth in the Premier League last season with a record points tally of 56. As a result, three Cherries players were poached by European giants in the summer transfer window.
Pinto, speaking to Sky Sports, admitted that Bournemouth could not stand in the trio’s way when three superpowers came knocking. But he also suggested that the Cherries had to make sales to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules so they can reinvest in the squad.
What’s been said
“The thing that I can say is about my players, about our players, and Kepa or Dean or Zaba or Milos or Dango [Ouattara], the ones that left, they were amazing with us,” said Pinto. “They respect the club, all of them. Of course they want to move on, they want to go to the clubs where they went. They had their dreams, but they were amazing because they always respect the club's policy. So we didn't have any kind of these problems.
“I'm very proud that this club before me was able to build a culture where the players, they have their own dreams, their own will, but they really respect what the club was asking from them, what the club was asking them to do. So at the end, when players behave like my players did, I feel even more responsibility to make them happy.”
“Regarding to these player sales, it's a good opportunity for me to explain why we did it. We had some constraints regarding to the PSR that push us to sell players, to trade players and to gain headroom to invest in the future.
“Since Bill Foley bought the club, we invested more than £350 million in players, so sooner or later it would come that we'd need to sell players. When these big clubs come and knock on our door, it's difficult to stand on the player's way. It's not only difficult, it's even like 'Should we do it?' because our jobs as sporting directors, CEOs, technical directors, owners, our job at Bournemouth is to understand when the momentum has achieved his maximum at the club. When you sell players to Liverpool, Real Madrid and PSG for that amount of money, I don't think we could have made different decisions.
“But I believe it will help us to recruit in the future because other players, agents and families will understand that Bournemouth is a good platform to achieve their dreams. But before they achieve their dreams, they have to help us achieve our dreams. That is winning games, being stable in the Premier League and fighting the big teams. These three situations help everyone understand a bit of magic happens in Bournemouth.”
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