Burnley: Dyche might have paid £7 million for a “world-class” talent who is now worth £100 million.
Had the Clarets acquired a productive striker in 2014, things might have gone very differently.
Burnley’s re-entry into the Premier League has been challenging, and one specific problem has been the lack of goals for Vincent Kompany’s team, who have scored just four goals in their first four league games.
Oh, how Zeki Amdouni, who joined from Swiss club Basel, represents something of a gamble given his lack of prior English football experience, how the Clarets wish they had a prolific presence to lead the line this season.
However, given that the club recently narrowly missed the opportunity to acquire England captain Harry Kane, Turf Moor may have been lining up with an almost certain supply of goals through the center in another world.
Why wasn’t Harry Kane signed by Burnley?
Even if it may seem far-fetched to think of now, there was a time when the former Tottenham Hotspur player might have ended himself in Lancashire after struggling to earn a spot in the first squad in north London.
Following a string of mixed loan spells in the lower leagues – notably scoring just twice in 15 games for Leicester City in 2013 – there were likely to have been doubts over Kane’s suitability to life at the elite level, with then-boss Tim Sherwood even suggesting that chairman Daniel Levy was willing to sanction the sale of the academy graduate to the Foxes for just £600k.
It was then a year later that the Turf Moor hierarchy were also believed to be sniffing around for the promising striker, with Sean Dyche – who was in the dugout at the time – revealing that he had enquired about signing the youngster in 2014.
Despite that interest from the current Everton boss, the Clarets were said to have been quoted a figure of around £7m to be able to prise the Walthamstow native from N17, with that a rather hefty asking price for a player that was relatively “unproven” – in the words of Dyche.
With Burnley looking to splash out closer to just £3m – the fee that was subsequently spent on George Boyd – the deal ultimately never came to fruition, leaving the Lancashire side to ponder what might have been had the 6 foot 2 sensation ended up on their books.
How much is Kane worth now?
That failure to sign the emerging goal machine immediately stung as Dyche’s side were relegated from the top flight at the end of the 2014/15 campaign, the same season in which Kane truly announced himself to the wider world with a stellar haul of 21 league goals for Spurs.
Despite a belief at the time from some that he would simply be a ‘one-season wonder’, the ruthless marksman has made those doubters look rather silly such has been his success since then, as he is now the leading scorer for both his country and for Spurs as a marker of his individual brilliance.
While also now just 47 goals behind Alan Shearer’s Premier League record tally, the 30-year-old opted to depart England in order to join Bayern Munich this summer, with the £412k-per-week gem still seeking a first piece of major silverware to add to his numerous individual honours.
As an indication of just how far he has come since those links to the Clarets almost a decade ago, Kane was snapped up by the Bundesliga giants for a reported fee of around £100m, with that figure likely to have been higher had the forward’s contract not been nearing its expiry at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
With five goals in just six games already under his belt in Germany, the 86-cap international is already making an immediate impact in his new surroundings as further proof of just what a “world-class” talent he is – as per pundit Graeme Souness.
In truth, that transfer failure represents a painful case of ‘one that got away’ for the Clarets…
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