Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyeo was one of the standout players of the Premier League season after coming close to sealing a move in the summer
Antoine Semenyo is set to leave Bournemouth as one of the Premier League’s big guns.
The Bournemouth winger is one of the hottest properties in the top flight this season with six goals and three assists in seven games after Friday’s 3-1 win at Fulham. Only Erling Haaland has found out more times than the 25-year-old, who refused a move elsewhere in the summer despite talks with another Premier League club.
Semenyo admitted he “didn’t want” enough to leave the Vitality Stadium and signed a new five-year contract, with Bournemouth losing several other high-profile players to the likes of Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain. But according to his personal skills coach, Saul Isakson-Hurst, Semenyo will soon light up the Champions League, continuing his meteoric rise from the sixth tier of English football.
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“He’s unbelievable,” Isakson Hurst told Mirror Sport. “He’s a Champions League player and we were unlucky not to make a move in the summer, but it’s only a matter of time before he goes to a big club. There was interest. He’s one of the most electric players in the Premier League at the moment.
“If he can dominate the Premier League, he can dominate any league. He can play for any big club and make an impact.” Semenyo approached Isakson Hirst at the beginning of the summer, first working with the specialist technical coach during a holiday in the south of France before intense pre-season sessions in London.
“I told him right away – ‘You should play Champions League football,'” Isakson Hirst recalled. “That has to be the first target.
“How is he going to do that? You have to be one of the best players at Bournemouth and help them have a really successful season and ideally be one of the best in your team and in the league for the best goals and support.
Semenyo has come a long way since joining Bristol City’s academy at the age of 17 after impressing while playing against them for his local university side. Loan spells in the National League South with Bath City, League Two with Newport County and League One with Sunderland followed before the breakthrough at Ashton Gate finally brought Bournemouth Cole.
“Resiliency in working hard. That’s one of the reasons he contacted me,” Isakson-Hurst said. “He understands that he needs to keep arriving. He wants to be the best player he can be, to keep working on his craft. A lot of football players come up to me, but I want to do something like this on a regular basis.”
Antoine Semenyo trains personal skills coach Saul Isaksson-Hurst
It’s hard to believe that Semenyo was overlooked by the many clubs he has now put on the sword. “It’s difficult, everyone is on a different journey and progressing differently, like (Ebebeki) Eze,” Isakson-Hurst added. “Maybe he wasn’t ready then.”
Isaksson-Hurst spent 10 years coaching in the academy systems of Tottenham and Chelsea before founding his own player performance app, My Personal Soccer Coach. He describes himself as an “individual skills development specialist” and works with Arsenal’s Noni Madueke and former Gunners striker Folarin Balogun, as well as Bournemouth-born full-back Max Aaron, who is on loan at Rangers.
“It’s pretty unprecedented to have no academy football and work your way,” he said of Semenyo. “People who support my sessions come up to me and say, ‘Wow, this guy is a box office hit.’
“He’s very dynamic and explosive with the ball, and that’s the difference. He can drive with the ball and attack with both feet. He has an unorthodox shooting technique where he hardly ‘knuckleballs’.”
