Think of a decent striker that Burnley probably can`t afford and some media guru will suggest we are interested in him after losing Charlie Austin! Officially we lost Austin for an ‘undisclosed fee` but gossip mongers are reporting we have received anywhere between £2-4 million from QPR for him. The conclusion would be from that they dont really know!!
The basic maths however suggests that perhaps we could at least afford a replacement in the region of £1 million but maybe not. Burnley media man, Darren Bentley hinted strongly on Clarets Player on Tuesday night that the club are basically skint with most of the Austin money about to be ploughed into the usual club black hole rather than ambitiously used to fund new players.
That doesn`t stop the gossip mongering though and the latest striker to be linked is Bolton`s Craig Davies. The 27 year old Welsh international striker came to prominence with Barnsley after Tykes manager at the time, Keith Hill signed him n July 2011. He had previously played for a host of clubs before that including Manchester City where he started his career as a youth. His other clubs in chronological order included Oxford United, Hellas Verona, Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan), Oldham Athletic, Stockport County (loan), Brighton & Hove Albion, Yeovil Town (loan), Port Vale (loan) and finally Chesterfield who he joined in July 2010.
Whilst at Oakwell, he notched up 19 goals from 60 appearances before joining Bolton in January 2013 to become new manager, Dougie Freedman’s first permanent signing. He signed for £300,000 after agreeing a two-and-a-half-year deal,
It is thought that Bolton could now be open to negotiations for Davies after splashing out on money to sign Jay Spearing from Liverpool. It is however thought that a £1million figure could be sought by Wanderers which on the face of it doesn`t sound too bad considering the money we received from Austin. Burnley fans though will be disappointed to read the comment by reporter, Suzanne Geldard in the Lancashire Telegraph. She writes that:
” If that (£1 m) proved to be the case then it is likely the Clarets would be priced out.”
It really does beggar belief that if true we can`t even release one million pounds and just shows what a true financial pickle we must be in despite the Austin money. Of course the link might not even be true. Bolton boss Dougie Freedman has also confirmed he had not been involved in any dialogue with Sean Dyche.
“Nothing has happened. No phone calls have come in to me,” said the Scot.
“I`ve not heard anything from Sean Dyche, so I`m not sure where it has come from,” he continued
“I`m certainly not in any rush to sell Craig. He`s a fantastic player who came at the right price for us.”
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