Burnley: could’ve signed ‘world-class’ star for £7m, now he’s worth £100m
Things could have turned out very differently had the Clarets got their hands on a prolific striker back in 2014.
It is fair to say that it has proven a tricky return to the Premier League as far as Burnley are concerned, with one particular worry having been the shortage of goals for Vincent Kompany’s side, after scoring just four times in four league games thus far.
Oh, how the Clarets wish they had a prolific presence to lead the line this season, with summer signing Zeki Amdouni – who arrived from Swiss side Basel – representing something of a gamble due to his lack of prior experience in English football.
In another world, the Turf Moor outfit may have been lining up with an almost guaranteed supply of goals through the middle, however, with the club having agonisingly missed out on the chance to sign England skipper, Harry Kane in the not-too-distant past…
Why didn’t Burnley sign Harry Kane?
While it may appear fanciful to imagine, there was a time in which the former Tottenham Hotspur man could have ended up in Lancashire, having struggled to force his way into the first-team reckoning 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.
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