Chelsea urged to re-sign Cherries ace Ake by legendary scout

Chelsea have been urged to re-sign Bournemouth central defender Nathan Ake by the scout who brought him to the west London club in 2011. In a wide-ranging interview with Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, Chelsea scout Piet de Visser says Ake should be in the Chelsea team now and extols the 24-year-old’s virtues as a defender.
De Visser, who remains influential on the recruitment side at Chelsea at the age of 85, brought Ake to the Blues’ attention when the youngster was still at school in The Hague.
Chelsea snapped him up from Feyenoord at the age of 16, and Ake didn’t have to wait long to make his senior debut, coming on as a substitute for Juan Mata in added time at the end of a 1-0 win at Carrow Road on Boxing Day 2012.
Ake made seven Premier League appearances, most of them alongside current manager Frank Lampard, interspersed with spells out on loan at Reading, Watford and Bournemouth before the Cherries signed him permanently in 2017.
Eddie Howe sanctioned the then club-record £20million outlay on Ake that summer and the Dutchman has gone from strength to strength in a Cherries shirt, making 82 Premier League appearances and scoring seven goals.
However, a few weeks after he joined, it was revealed his former club Chelsea had inserted a buy-back clause in Ake’s transfer contract.
And the feeling that Chelsea would take him back, if they could, has grown since he became a regular at international level for the Netherlands in the past 18 months. “Ake should play for Chelsea now,” De Visser told Volkskrant. “He’s so good. How often does he not score with the header. He has timing and insight. I hope they buy him back. That boy is crazy about Chelsea. And he has played with Lampard.”
De Visser’s comments will only harden the feeling Bournemouth should brace themselves for a Chelsea raid although that won’t be in January as the club are still the subject to a transfer ban.
Bournemouth knocked back a bid from Everton for Ake in the summer and he has also been linked with Manchester City this season.