When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his coach back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This prediction turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Today aged 22 and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his maiden summons to the senior England team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a true throwback, a story rarely told in the modern era.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, let alone playing in the Premier League and playing for England as well,” the player stated previously.
“It’s been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed drastically for myself and my loved ones.”
So how did Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up at this level?
Developing in the lower tiers
His path in football has not been a conventional one.
He spent over four years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, leaving school early each Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to his 13th birthday, however, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he opted to stay on the island and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and traveling every week was becoming overwhelming,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my mates at the weekend because I had missed almost four and a half years of that experience. Getting that little bit of youth again was something I really needed.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by returning and taking part in local football was huge for me. It was probably the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a second-half substitute in their league fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” manager the coach commented at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by islander their owner – had been tracking Scott’s development after an impressive start in men’s football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“It was hectic,” recalled the player. “The first day I trained with the youth team, the next day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a three goals. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a contract.”
Within 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, often being used as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a number 10 – such was his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was their best player.
With his ability to drive the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s best young player honour, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was named the club’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I think he will represent England and I’m sure he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s boss at the club, stated last year.
Within 90 days later, he joined Bournemouth for a reported fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
The midfielder experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, waiting until the autumn to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“There was a decent run at the end of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said Scott.
“That felt like almost another obstacle and it was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, forming a formidable partnership in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the senior side with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun this season equally as strongly for his club, featuring in every game to help them to the top five in the standings.
“To play for the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player stated earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to continue developing as a player, keep enjoying the game, improving day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
