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| Oli Burke - playing for Alaves |
Oliver Burke is for sale. 4 years after the then teenager
appeared to have the world at his feet and left Forest for RB Leipzig, there is
a question of resigning him.
There would be numerous problems with that before we even
touch on should we go for him. It still won’t be cheap. He cost West Brom £15
million just three years ago. Even with Premiership money they aren’t going to
just write off that figure, as he also has two years left on that contract. And
a five year deal signed in a £15 mill deal when West Brom were in the Premiership,
he is going to have high wages (the reports when he went to Leipzig saw some
eye watering figures for a untested youngsters bandied about)
So Burke is available. And could fit into our counter attacking
system. He knows the club, and was a popular player so could be a good fit.
We have returned for players before. If you go back beyond
my times we bought back John Robertson and Garry Birtles. More into my era,
Steve Hodge and Neil Webb both came back, Des Walker came home and more
recently so too have Andy Reid and Michael Dawson.
However in a few of those cases its players at the end of
their career, in the twilight of their playing days coming back. Not a player
coming back in his peak years. Look across football. It doesn’t happen all that
much, especially in England. You could easily argue in all of those cases
above, the player that came back was a far diminished version of the player who
left.
And that argument of a diminished player returning would be
very much the case with a Burke return. If he were to reignite his career would
he want to stick around. I don’t think there’s a chance right now of a Premier
League team taking him on because he has simply failed to make the grade at the
top level. One of Leipzig’s criticisms was that he wasn’t an intelligent
player. But in a stable environment getting games he could turn out to be an
astute buy.
Without major outgoings I can’t see us laying out the £6-7
million I think would be necessary to bring Burke back. I can’t see the club
approving many multi million deals, especially on a player who has struggled
for a few years. Similarly an expensive buy would see a long contract, and look
at how we got lumbered with Clough for a number of years with no takers. I’m
not saying Burke is like Clough, Burke has gone places to get regular game
time, whereas Clough has wallowed.
We are also linked with Kieron Freeman who left the club as
a youngster. Unlike Burke he never really broke through at Forest. Unlike Burke
he would be relatively cost effective. He knows the city which can help.
Moving for a former player isn’t always going backwards. Burke moved to go onto bigger things that didn’t quite pan out. So its not quite a step backwards. But it would be a risk
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| Kieron Freeman |
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