When the young midfielder made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
This statement proved to be something of an understatement.
Today 22 years old and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his maiden summons to the full England team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a proper blast from the past, a journey rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, never mind playing in the Premier League and representing England as well,” Scott said previously.
“It has been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have changed drastically for me and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself here?
Developing in the lower tiers
His path in football has been far from a conventional one.
He spent over four years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to fly from his home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to his 13th birthday, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an opportunity and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Instead, he chose to remain on the island and play for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“All I desired to chill at my home with my mates at weekends because I had missed nearly several years of that experience. Getting that little bit of youth back was a thing I really needed.
“Building some self-belief by coming back and playing local football was huge for me. It was probably the most crucial factors that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their league fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance commented at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side Bristol City – chaired by islander their owner – had been tracking his development after an impressive start in men’s football and arranged a trial in late 2019.
“It was hectic,” recalled the player. “Day one I trained with the youth team, the next day I was with the first team, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, returned home and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
Within 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott made 83 league outings for the club while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wing-back – and sometimes in attack as a number 10 – such was his adaptability and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was their best player.
With his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s best young player award, was selected in the division’s team of the year and was named Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for England and I’m sure he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, the player’s boss at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Within three months later, he joined Bournemouth for a understood fee of £25m.
Securing his big move
Scott experienced a difficult first season with the club, waiting until October to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost several months.
“I had quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like yet another obstacle and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, forming a strong partnership in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has gone on to impress for the first team with the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign equally as strongly for his club, playing in every game to help them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my career,” Scott stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a player, keep enjoying football, improving day on day, and hopefully I impress the England manager and get my chance.”
