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Siriki Dembele: Birmingham City sign winger from Bournemouth
Birmingham City have signed winger Siriki Dembele for an undisclosed fee from AFC Bournemouth.
Dembele has joined on a three-year contract just after Tahith Chong left Blues to move to Premier League newcomers Luton Town.
The 26-year-old played 22 times for Bournemouth, scoring two goals, but he spent the second half of last season on loan at French club Auxerre.
He becomes Birmingham’s sixth signing this summer.
- This summer’s transfer deals
Dembele’s arrival follows those of Tyler Roberts, Krystian Bielik, Ethan Laird and Koji Miyoshi, while Kevin Long signed a new contract with the club after initially being released.
“It made perfect sense to come here, it looks like it is going to be a new and exciting project, so I thought it would be a great move for me,” Dembele told the club website.
Dembele made his name at Peterborough United where he scored 31 times in 148 games and was part of the team that won promotion from League One in 2020-21.
He then joined Bournemouth in January 2022 and netted twice in 13 Championship appearances as the Cherries gained automatic promotion back to the Premier League.
However, he did not score for them in the top flight and then failed to find the net in his 12 games in Ligue 1.
But he hopes that returning to the Championship will see him regain his best form.
He said: “I spent a year in the Championship, with two different clubs, and it went really well. I’m looking to replicate the same form for Birmingham, if not even better.”
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AFC Bournemouth have announced the signing of Romain Faivre from Olympique Lyonnais for an undisclosed fee, which has been reported to be in the region of €15million.
The 24-year-old is a former France Under-21 international and he has signed a “long-term deal with the club”, the Daily Echo have reported that he will be contracted to the Cherries until the summer of 2028.
In February 2018, Faivre signed his first professional contract with Monaco. He failed to break through to become a first team regular and in 2020 made the move to Brest, where he scored 14 goals in 59 appearances impressing Lyon enough to splash a reported €17 million (including add-ons) to sign him in January 2022. However, just 12 months later he was sent out on loan to Lorient where he spent the remainder of the 2022/23 season.
Faivre will make a quick return to Lorient as he has already been sent out on a season-long loan deal to Ligue 1 side Lorient, the French club are part-owned by AFC Bournemouth’s American owner Bill Foley.
It has been reported by Daily Echo reporter Tom Crocker that Lorient will pay his wages during the duration of his loan deal as well as paying a fee, leaving a minimal outlay for AFC Bournemouth during the first year of the deal.
Speaking to Lorient’s official website, Faivre said…
“I am obviously happy to return to FC Lorient for a full year.
“I took a lot of pleasure last season to evolve within this team, with this staff, in front of the Lorient supporters.
“My priority was to return to Lorient to continue the progress seen at the end of last season and thus pass a milestone in terms of collective and individual performance”
AFC Bournemouth chief executive Neill Blake told afcb.co.uk…
“It’s great for the club to have secured such a talent in Romain.
“He’s a player we’ve been monitoring for a number of years since his move to Brest, and we were particularly impressed with his progress while on loan at Lorient.
“We wish him all the best for the coming season and look forward to seeing him continue his development.”
Your say…
northstandmark wrote…
Let’s assume 15m over 5 years, under FFP amortisation that’s 3m per year.
If Lorient can pay us 3m or at least something towards that, this whole thing can be limited in terms of FFP impact on us for a while.
Then they get another year from a player they probably didn’t expect to get. Eventually, we’ll have a chance to bring the guy in ourselves. He’s an asset on the books.
It is weird, but I suspect there are folks on either side of the Channel who have thought this through.
All that said – this should not be some of our first business of the summer! If we’d already gotten full-backs and midfielders in, were ready to go this season, and then had a bit of spare capacity for multi-club structure shenanigans… then ok. – Join the conversation, click here.
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