Bournemouth

Nat Hayward
BBC Sport journalist

Bournemouth boss Marco Rose has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (15:00 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Rose confirmed Alex Scott will be out for "four to five weeks" with the injury that forced him to withdraw from the England squad. Asked whether Scott felt a problem before playing for the Three Lions and whether the club are unhappy at how one of their star players was managed, the Cherries boss said: "I'm very disappointed and it's a big loss. No [injury going into the England debut against Croatia]. The club already said everything about it. It's disappointing. I don't want to blame anyone. We're very happy he is in the England national team. He did well."

• On the fitness of the rest of his squad: "We still have injuries but most of the lads are back on the pitch with rehab coaches and are training. Maybe for the Sturm Graz or Sunderland game we are going to have one or two players back."

• Rose confirmed David Brooks is in full team training despite pulling out of the Wales squad during the international beak.

• On his work over the international break: "We analysed the first seven games. We saw we have some really good stats but still only have three points in the Premier League. There must be a reason and we analysed the things. We showed the lads some positive stuff and some stuff to work on. Now we have to bring it on the pitch."

• Asked whether it is taking time for his new side to adapt to his approaches, Rose said: "We already see our style. A lot of things are in a good direction - we just need to get points out of the games. We can talk about the match momentum we gave away in some games. We scored goals and defended well so it's not about the style or time to adapt."

• On the challenge facing them at Stamford Bridge: "If you win a game you can get in a run and get more confidence, but we still have enough confidence to go to Chelsea and try to win the game."

• When asked about the guilty verdicts handed to Manchester City, Rose said: "I'm not this kind of guy who blames someone with not enough information. Of course, I hear everything, I read everything, but I do not have all the information. I trust in the guys who are involved in these kinds of things and situations and then we will see what happens. I'm a football coach not a politician. I love to be a football coach and it should stay like this."

Listen to full live commentary of Chelsea v Bournemouth on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

Follow all of Thursday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Manchester United are expected to face serious competition from rivals Liverpool for Bournemouth and France left-back Adrien Truffert, 24, who is valued at about £60m (Teamtalk), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Thursday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Mark Mitchener
BBC Sport senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

Like all top-flight managers, Bournemouth's Marco Rose will be welcoming his international players back for the weekend's games - while carefully assessing those who have returned carrying injuries.

The loss of Alex Scott - to a thigh injury expected to keep him out for six to eight weeks - will be felt keenest, having been a key player in the early weeks of Rose's tenure, and particularly after a sparkling start to his England career.

While he has mainly been a substitute for the Cherries this season, David Brooks also missed Wales' past two games with injury.

With injured trio Veljko Milosavljevic, Amine Adli and Eli Junior Kroupi yet to play a competitive minute under Rose because of injury, and Justin Kluivert having been ruled out of the last league game, the German may find his squad stretched as they enter the busiest part of the season.

Before the next international break, Rose's side face nine games between 10 October and 8 November, without a free midweek because of their Europa League commitments and progress in the EFL Cup.

Although that run begins with Saturday's trip to Chelsea, and includes a visit to Manchester United (25 October), five of those nine games are at home, though the sequence ends with back-to-back away trips to Prague and Ipswich.

However, as Bournemouth have found in the past under other managers, adversity can galvanise team spirit, while gaps in the squad can give opportunities to others.

Bournemouth's two Scotland players combined for their team's only goal against Slovenia on Tuesday, with Ben Gannon-Doak's run and cross creating the opportunity which Ryan Christie finished.

Both will surely be more involved over the coming weeks, as will Alex Toth who helped Hungary to back-to-back Nations League wins.

Explore Bournemouth content on BBC Sounds

Bournemouth have no intention of selling England midfielder Alex Scott, 23, in January despite interest from Chelsea and Real Madrid. (Talksport), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

A number of Premier League clubs want Manchester City to be hit with both "retrospective punishments" and sanctions for the future for their mass financial rule-breaking, sources have told BBC Sport.

An independent commission found City guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.

City have appealed against the verdict, while the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is poised to look at the findings to see if there may be any suggestions of potential misconduct.

However, there is said to be a consensus among a group of top-flight club executives that if City's appeal is unsuccessful, the sanctions should make reparations for the period when they broke the rules, while also limiting their powers in future.

There is also a feeling from at least four Premier League boardrooms that a "one-hit" points deduction resulting in relegation to the Championship would be an insufficient punishment given the severity of City's wrongdoing.

Read more on what rival clubs want

Nizaar Kinsella
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Bournemouth hope to have forward Eli Junior Kroupi back by November at the latest.

The 20-year-old has been recovering from surgery on a foot injury sustained during a pre-season training session in Austria in late July.

The French attacker returned to the UK for surgery and is targeting a return before the international break next month.

Kroupi became the first teenager to score 10 or more goals in a debut Premier League season since Robbie Keane did so for Coventry City in 1999-00.

He finished with 13 goals in 33 league appearances under former Cherries boss Andoni Iraola but has yet to play under successor Marco Rose.

Bournemouth believe Kroupi, who has been linked with several major clubs, including Arsenal and Paris St-Germain, can have an important impact during the second half of their campaign.

Kroupi, like many of Bournemouth's key players, will not be allowed to leave Vitality Stadium during the January transfer window.

Midfielder Alex Scott, who has suffered a thigh injury that will rule him out for up to eight weeks, is also not available for sale during that period.

Bournemouth are without a win in their opening five Premier League games, though they have progressed in the Carabao Cup and will host Aston Villa in the last 16 on 28 October.

They also won their first European match, away to Real Sociedad in the Europa League, before the international break.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Premier League midfielder Charlie Adam says "good communication" is needed between Bournemouth and England after the injury sustained by Alex Scott on international duty.

The midfielder, 23, is out for up to eight weeks and has withdrawn from the Three Lions squad to face the Czech Republic in the Nations League on Tuesday with a thigh injury. His club are unhappy with the way they believe the injury was handled.

"The medical team can't make that decision off the back of just what they think, they have to get the feeling from the player," Adam told BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast.

"If I'm Alex Scott, getting my first cap, I'm not walking off that pitch. He's worked so hard, a lot has happened in his personal life with different things to get to a point where he gets an opportunity to play for England.

"You might only get one chance so to come off would be a huge disappointment for him.

"I get the grievance of Bournemouth, paying big wages and different things, but if you're Alex Scott that is a big moment for you and your career.

"Ultimately we're all talking about how good he played, but it's very difficult for him to hold his hands up and say, 'I'm struggling here' because you want to keep playing and want to affect it."

Scott impressed on his first international start in the 7-0 win in Croatia after he first felt the issue, and post-match England boss Thomas Tuchel said: "When we were aware there was slight discomfort during the match and asked if he wanted to come off he said no. After the match, he said he could have played 90 minutes and didn't feel an injury."

Adam - recently a manager himself at Fleetwood Town and currently a set-piece coach at Everton - says he understands why the issue was not flagged as a major issue.

"Like Tuchel said, the symptoms were not showing when the scan comes," he added.

"I have seen that recently with some of my own players where you don't think it's as bad and then you get the scan and all of a sudden it's six months of injury.

"Sometimes symptoms don't show until later. It's very difficult but good communication is needed now between Bournemouth and England."

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

Listen to fan debate on Scott's injury below or get more Bournemouth audio from BBC Radio Solent here

Image source, Getty Images

We asked for your views on how big a miss Alex Scott will be for Bournemouth over the coming weeks following his injury while on international duty, with the club unhappy at England's handling of the situation.

Here are some of your comments:

James: I totally understand why Alex would want to play through injury for a first starting cap. I would do the same. However, why would England let him play with an injury? Understand we don't have the full facts maybe, but as a Bournemouth fan, I'm very unhappy. We now have a jam-packed schedule of Premier League, Europa League and cup games without our best player.

Dave: Reading between the lines, I think he may have been playing down the injury because he wanted to get his start and help the team. I guess he didn't feel he had the luxury of dropping out in the way other players did.

Marty: Unbelievable how these national team managers handle these players. It's really a shame and now he is sad. How does that make his club feel? Since his national team duties are over until the next break and Scott is going to miss a considerable amount of club time. Some of the blame is on Scott for trying to make an impression, but this is a major blow to Bournemouth. I am extremely upset knowing he'll miss Europa League games, and we sit 17th in the Premier League table.

Clive: Although his injury is a real shame, I think this really will give Alex Toth the opportunity to shine. Watching him recently, especially when coming on for Hungary, it is my belief he could do a similar job. The issue will be whether the manager sees it the same way as I.

Bob: I always assumed (evidently incorrectly) that football teams depended on 11 players. Why all this fuss over Scott? What are reserve team players for?

Image source, Getty Images

Bournemouth are unhappy with the way they believe England handled the injury to midfielder Alex Scott - which means he could now be out for up to eight weeks.

Scott has withdrawn from the England squad to face the Czech Republic in the Nations League on Tuesday with a thigh injury.

He felt the issue prior to Saturday's 7-0 win over Croatia, but played 70 minutes in central midfield alongside Elliot Anderson before being substituted.

England boss Thomas Tuchel said the quadriceps issue is "a strange" one and that "there was zero risk taken" on the midfielder.

Scott made his England debut as a substitute in the away win against the Czech Republic and impressed on his first start on Saturday.

"With Alex, it's a strange one, I'm very sad about it," Tuchel said in his news conference on Monday,

"He trained in full before Croatia, did extra work after the training sessions, we knew he was in treatment but there were only green lights from him and the medics.

"When we were aware there was slight discomfort during the match and asked if he wanted to come off he said no. After the match, he said he could have played 90 minutes and didn't feel an injury.

"Even before the scan he didn't feel injured, so it's a strange one. There was zero risk taken from our side."

Tuchel went on to defend his medical team after Arsenal's Ezri Konsa also withdrew from the camp with injury on Monday. Five players had already pulled out at the start of the extended international break.

"This is always the case when you name a squad," he added.

"It's just what it is. From 23 or 24 players, two or three had to pull out. I can assure everyone that player welfare is priority number one.

"But, new training style and training times, different positions to play maybe, increase the chance of injury."

How do you feel about England's use of Scott? Has his injury been poorly handled? And how big of a miss will he be over the coming weeks?

Let us know here

Sami Mokbel
Senior football correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott has withdrawn from the England squad to face the Czech Republic on Tuesday with a thigh injury.

Scott is set to be out for six to eight weeks with the quadriceps issue.

The 23-year-old was excellent on his full debut as England defeated Croatia 7-0 in the Nations League on Saturday.

He felt the issue prior to the match, but played 70 minutes in central midfield alongside Elliot Anderson before being substituted.

How big of a miss will Scott be for Bournemouth over the next few months and what can Marco Rose do to replace his influence in midfield?

Get in touch with your views here

Real Madrid are considering joining the race to sign Alex Scott after watching the Bournemouth and England midfielder, 23, closely in recent weeks. (Teamtalk), external

Chelsea are in pole position to sign Scott from Bournemouth, with Liverpool and Arsenal also interested. (Telegraph - subscription required), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Tom McCoy
BBC Sport journalist

New Bournemouth boss Marco Rose is likely to consider a haul of three points from five league games slightly disappointing, with his side having taken the lead in all but one of those matches.

But he has provided the continuity the club would have hoped for following Andoni Iraola's departure. Despite some subtle tactical changes, Rose has not strayed far from Iraola's blueprint of hard running and relentless pressing.

The Cherries lead the league for distance covered at 'high speed' (between 20 and 25km/h), having ranked second under Iraola last season. They are also fourth for distance sprinted (movement faster than 25km/h), a metric they topped in 2025-26.

The similarities extend beyond hard graft. As under Iraola, Rose's side favour vertical attacks over patient build-up play. They sit only 15th for passes per sequence of possession but are among the league's best when it comes to direct attacks, fast breaks and shots after high turnovers.

So while the Cherries are seven points worse off than at this stage last season, the underlying approach has remained largely unchanged.

Having led the club to a historic first European win, at Real Sociedad, Rose has every reason to believe a maiden league victory is not far away.

Mark Mitchener
BBC Sport senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

As the clock ticked towards 70 minutes in England's game in Prague on Tuesday, a long-awaited substitution was finally made.

Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott replaced his former England Under-21 team-mate Elliot Anderson for the final 20 minutes against the Czech Republic, with Guernsey-born Scott becoming only the third man to win a full England cap while a Cherries player.

Lewis Cook broke the mould in March 2018 when he came on as a substitute against Italy, while Callum Wilson's goalscoring debut against the USA later that year was the first of four caps he won before joining Newcastle.

Jermain Defoe and Jack Wilshere both made the England bench during Bournemouth's Premier League tenure, but without adding to their haul of caps.

Of the other players to have represented Bournemouth and England, albeit not concurrently, most fall into one of three broad categories.

There are the ageing legends, who won England honours and later came to Dean Court close to the end of their careers - Bert Bliss, Bill McGarry, Charlie George, David Armstrong, Luther Blissett, Darren Anderton, David James, Gary Cahill and current Cherries third-choice keeper Fraser Forster.

At the opposite end, there are those who played for the Cherries early in their careers and went on to greater things, including England recognition. As well as local home-grown youngsters such as Kevin Reeves, Jamie Redknapp, Adam Lallana and Danny Ings, others in this category include Jack Rowley, Phil Boyer, Tyrone Mings and Aaron Ramsdale.

Then, there are the loanees - Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Bertrand, Nathaniel Clyne, Jack Cork and Morgan Rogers.

Finally, Dominic Solanke deserves a category of his own as the only player to have been capped by England before and after his time at Bournemouth, but not during - despite a 20-goal season in 2023-24, his recall did not come until after joining Tottenham.

Explore Bournemouth content on BBC Sounds here

Sami Mokbel and Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Bournemouth are not willing to entertain offers for midfielder Alex Scott during the January transfer window.

The 23-year-old made his senior England debut in Wednesday's 2-0 Nations League win away to Czechia but will be into the final 18 months of his contract come January.

The Cherries have had two contract renewal talks rejected before a summer window in which Scott pushed to leave the Vitality Stadium.

However, they remain steadfast that they have warned interested clubs that they will not welcome any contact over a move until their league objectives have either been achieved or are no longer attainable.

Similarly, Bournemouth would not entertain offers for other key players, including striker Eli Junior Kroupi, who remains sidelined through injury, and winger Rayan.

The club are competing on four fronts this season, including their first-ever European campaign in the Europa League.

Scott has performed well on the south coast and shown no signs of discontent but is known to ultimately want to join one of England's biggest clubs.

Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool are among the Premier League clubs known to hold an interest in Scott.

Manchester City and Manchester United, meanwhile, strengthened their midfield options during the summer and are not expected to revive their interest.

Chelsea remain keen to sign a midfielder after seeing a £64m bid for Scott rejected during the summer.

They also missed out on Monaco's Lamine Camara on deadline day, held talks over a move for Roma's Manu Kone and expressed an interest in Fulham's Sander Berge.

Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola is also thought to have a positive relationship with his former player Scott. The Anfield club are known to be targeting a midfielder in future transfer windows and retain an interest in Camara.

Image source, Getty Images

Bournemouth's Alex Scott says his late grandfather was his "biggest fan" after revealing he passed away last week, days before the midfielder made his England debut.

The 23-year-old made his Three Lions debut on Tuesday, when he replaced Manchester City's Elliot Anderson in the 70th minute against Czech Republic.

"I will always remember this place now. England debut - it's what dreams are made of," Scott told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"Something that when I was younger, even 15 or 16, wasn't a reality at all so I've worked really hard and it's a proud moment for me and my family as well.

"My partner, she's been there with me for a good six years so she's seen everything, my parents are massive for me, my brother growing up [we were] playing football non stop, and my grandad passed away last week.

"For him, obviously it was a special thing and it's a shame that he didn't see it but he would have been looking down and proud of it. It was tough last week, I found out on camp just before the Spain game, he was the proudest man, he came to all my matches whenever he could and he was my biggest fan."

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

Image source, Getty Images

The Premier League has opened a Pandora's box of problems which cannot be closed. However well-intentioned, however morally upright they mean to be, the way the product is perceived around the planet by fans will be negatively affected.

This looks like a gigantic mess, but could also become a bit of a joke, especially if they attempt to rewrite history, and change the winners' names on the Premier League and cup trophies over these past 15 years. I wouldn't want the engraver's job.

I believe financial rules brought in to prioritise financial sustainability were also aimed at limiting the money being spent by the clubs, especially the staggering, ever-inflating sums spent on sometimes fairly average players. It could lead to a de facto salary cap, which many fans would approve of.

The long-term problem for the league is easy to see here: if the top players are then offered significantly more money to play elsewhere, they will be off before you can say 'man on'.

I always thought the Premier League had taken a huge risk going down this regulatory road. As with Manchester City's future, nobody knows what the real long-term ramifications will be.

I have a suspicion it could end up being the greatest own goal in the sport's entire history.

The big take: If City are cast out of England's top leagues, what might the owners do – hang around the lower reaches, or find something else? Wasn't there the idea of a Super League? Keep that thought in the back of your mind.

Pat Nevin writes weekly in the Football Extra newsletter. If you're outside the UK and would like to receive it, sign up here.

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

Image source, Getty Images

Most of the time it is not that big a deal if you go into the international break having just lost a club game if I am honest, as teams lose games frequently.

That is just the life of a professional footballer. You have to be able to cope with disappointment as an individual and as a team.

‌Admittedly, players will sometimes say that they want another domestic game quickly, but it is almost always specifically after a 'bad' defeat as opposed to just a run-of-the-mill loss.

‌However, if the team has genuinely played terribly, or lost a game they were expected to win comfortably, you will commonly hear the phrase "we want to have a chance to get back out there and put it right quickly".

‌Players who have had a stinker, even if their team won, might also want to get out again as soon as possible to put it right in front of their fans, or 'reset'. The 'reset' argument is just current football jargon to say, "we will try to get it right next time, and we blew it this week, sorry".

‌The international break can also have the beneficial effect of taking your mind away from a bad defeat. This is not to say that you don't care, it is just that you must compartmentalise your thoughts and feelings. Footballers are among the best at this.

‌You simply cannot go to play for your national team and spend the time brooding about what happened against Brentford last week. That way lies madness and another poor performance, only this time in front of the entire nation.

Pat Nevin writes weekly in the Football Extra newsletter. If you're outside the UK and would like to receive it, sign up here.