Tottenham and West Ham can forget about Bournemouth deals as owner Bill Foley gives revealing interview
Tottenham have been told to forget about signing Bournemouth defender Lloyd Kelly in January after owner Bill Foley vowed: ‘Our door is closed and bolted.’
Spurs are eyeing Kelly, whose current contract expires at the end of the season, to bolster their centre-back ranks while West Ham remain keen on the Cherries’ top-scorer Dominic Solanke after having a summer approach rebuffed.
But American Foley said: “Our door is closed and it's bolted. We're not interested in selling any player.
“If situations arise that we're put in a position where we are compelled to do something because the player really wants to move on, but we were very specific in terms of Philip Billing and Dom and signing them to new, extended contracts.
“We would like to do that with another player. We are meeting with the agent and that would be a big accomplishment if we could keep Lloyd Kelly as he is a key player, is versatile and can play two different positions.
“I like him as an individual. He's a good player, and a good guy. We can just do the best we can and that's what we're going to do."
Foley has also told talkSPORT he never considered sacking manager Andoni Iraola even after the Spaniard failed to win any of his first ten Premier League games having succeeded the sacked Gary O’Neil in the summer.
The Las Vegas-based businessman said: “I was completely relaxed, totally relaxed. I knew we had made the right decision and I could see it happening as we moved through those games, and we did start out with the toughest schedule in the league.
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“We blew a couple games a little bit early on, but that’s to be expected as we were changing the style of play. I am happy where we are right now. We are doing really well and I’m really proud of our players.
“We have three games coming up that I feel like we can win. If we are successful in the next three games then we finish the first half of the season in really good shape.”
Foley also revealed plans to build a new 18,500-seater stadium next to Bournemouth’s existing Vitality Stadium in time for the start of the 2027-28 season.
He said: “We have done a lot of work on the stadium, the training ground is going to be finished about next October and that allows us to start working on the stadium.
“My goal for the stadium is to have it finished by the summer of '27, it might be '28, but it's going to be right behind the current stadium. We have looked at rehabilitating the current stadium and it actually costs almost as much to rehabilitate that stadium.
“And we would be shut down for a period of time in terms of fans. It’s just better to build a new stadium and do it right and give our fans a really great experience.
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“It's not going to be a gigantic stadium. I think we start with about 18,500 seats as our current plan. We can add a second deck on one of the stands, which would give us 21,000.”
Finally, Foley gave the latest on his quest to buy a minority stake in Scottish side Hibs.
Foley said: “We're going through the process with the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football Association to ensure that we're doing things properly and that we're doing them in a way that they're happy with our participation.
“We're not going to be a controlling shareholder, we're going to be an investor but we certainly want to coordinate acquisition and disposition of players with Hibs and I know they can use the help.”