Bournemouth midfielder Phillip Billing has insisted that he wants to remain with the Cherries this summer and continue his development under Scott Parker.

Billing’s future has been the subject of speculation this summer with the midfielder having reportedly emerged on the radar of Norwich City following their promotion to the Premier League last season.

That comes with the Canaries keen to add another midfielder to their squad ahead of the start of the new top-flight campaign.

A recent report from The Sun on Sunday (25/07/2021, p62) did suggest that Billing was considering staying with the Cherries this summer rather than making the switch to Carrow Road.

Since then, Billing has started the campaign in Bournemouth’s starting line-up and he delivered a strong performance in their opening Championship match against West Brom.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent, Billing has now confirmed that his desire is to remain with Bournemouth this season and develop his game under Parker on the training ground. He insisted that any suggestions over a move to Norwich is just noise and not what he is focused on.

He said: “Under Scott Parker, the gaffer obviously, I would love to stay here. I feel like the next step I need to take with his experience and his mentality and work just on the training pitch, I feel like it affects me and right now I feel this is the best place for me to be, especially under the new gaffer.

“I don’t really listen to whatever is going I just focus on here, I have a big season coming up for both the team, the club and myself as well, so everything else is just noise.”

The verdict

This is the perfect sort of news for Bournemouth with Billing one of the Cherries’ most influential performers. Keeping hold of the midfielder was always going to be a challenge considering that Norwich City have been circling for him following their promotion last season.

Billing might have been tempted to make the move to Carrow Road and get a fresh chance at showing what he can do in the Premier League. That is something he seems to be more ready for now than he was maybe at Huddersfield Town and then Bournemouth, with his all-around game having improved a lot over the last few years with the Cherries.

This shows how important it was for Bournemouth to bring in a manager with a real pedigree in the shape of Parker and it seems that is making a difference in the mindset of Billing here to remain with the club.

It will be exciting to see how much Billing can improve his game with the Cherries in the coming campaign and under Parker you would expect him to continue his development from the back end of last season.