Burnley Issued Their Last “Warning” Statement On Wolves Persistence On Their Star

A growing sense of unrest” – Burnley told to issue clear Luca Koleosho stance amid Wolves interest

Wolves have been in talks with Burnley over the potential signing of Luca Koleosho, although the Premier League outfit’s chances of a deal being done appear to be fading.

According to the Express and Star, Gary O’Neil is keen to bring in the 19-year-old from the Clarets, although as per Nick Mashiter of the BBC, the West Midlands side have had a £20 million bid turned down for the diminute attacker.

The young Italian joined the Clarets in the summer of 2023 from Espanyol for a fee of £2.6 million. Koleosho dazzled in the first few months of his time at Turf Moor, but a knee injury in early December put him on the shelf for the remainder of the campaign.

FLW’s Burnley fan pundit, Nathan Rogers, believes that the Clarets are better off keeping hold of Koleosho, and that the fanbase are justified in their current criticisms of the ownership for selling off multiple key players.

“We need to be looking at around £20-25 million for him (Koleosho). Like Odobert, he went for a high fee, so I’d expect the same for Koleosho,” Nathan told Football League World.

“He’s the type of player we should be retaining to keep some value and talent in the squad to help us to actually get promoted this season.

“I think if we don’t get anything near £25 million I don’t think we should entertain it.

“I think there is a growing sense of unrest among fans towards the board. Some of it is semi-unjustified, some of it is justified, but this is the third merry-go-round we’ve had in between seasons where we’ve had to rebuild a squad from scratch again.

“We’ve had a lot of outgoings and not as many incomings as we’d like. The unrest among fans is that the ownership keep banging the drum about a ‘project’ but we’re not seeing end goals in this project, and we’re sort of like a yo-yo at the moment.

“Every season we have to learn new names and new faces and kids try to support their heroes, but they leave every six months!

“That fan frustration is being amplified a little bit on social media, but it’s fair. It didn’t help that we had Parker cutting a very frustrated figure after the Sunderland game, making comments around the transfer window, and he can’t wait for it to be shut.

“From the outside looking in, the ‘project’ Parker signed up for isn’t what he hoped, and it’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out in the next four or five days of the window. Hopefully, he gets the targets he wants, but if he doesn’t, it could be an interesting couple of weeks.”

Criticsm should be aimed at Alan Pace for Burnley ‘fire-sale’

With Burnley’s current status, continuing to sell players won’t be sustainable for the club.

Yes, it brings in money to invest, but taking apart a squad with good morale, and a new manager getting across his ideas, isn’t the right formula.

The Clarets should retain Koleosho, at just the age of 19, as he’s showing real promise and will only get better. The likelihood is he will leave Turf Moor at some point, but with no indications of the Italian wanting to leave, and with three years still remaining on his contract, it wouldn’t be a wise decision.

The fact that a bid has been turned down by the Clarets is a good start though, and if Pace wants Burnley to follow the ‘project’ he set out when coming to Lancashire in 2021, selling Koleosho at this stage on top of all the other exits isn’t the way forward.

If the Italian was to depart, expect fireworks at Turf Moor – and not in a good way…