Iraola bites back amid heightened talk of January exit for Semenyo

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola has reiterated that he does not want to lose Antoine Semenyo following speculation about his future.The forward has attracted the interest of several clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham, with The Independent understanding Semenyo has a £65m release clause in his contract that is active from 1 January.However, Iraola reaffirmed that Semenyo is still a Bournemouth player despite the "noise" surrounding him."Antoine Semenyo right now is with us. He has trained today with us, very well," Iraola said."I understand that there is a lot of noise around Antoine. But my concern is that it doesn't affect him, his performances and we are seeing that it is not affecting his performances. He is very committed to the team and I hope we can keep him there."There are situations that we cannot control, but right now, Antoine is our player and he's going to continue playing for us. If you ask me, I don't want to lose him, definitely don't want to lose him. But like we always say, every time the market opens, you never know what's going to happen."Semenyo has been key for the Cherries this season, scoring eight goals in 16 league games and has struck in their last two outings.Speaking ahead of Saturday's clash with Brentford, Iraola added: "Antoine, for me, has been performing very well. Not just the last two games because he has scored. The level of consistency has been very good since the beginning of the season."He has had moments where he hasn't scored and has still been very valuable for us. At the end, we demand not only the numbers, but he gives us a lot of things. It's no secret he is a massive player for us."Additional reporting from PA