Yukimara

I don't blame the kid for wanting to get out of Burnley tbh

retired_hvporter

To be totally honest, United may well pay out on this kid and he may never come through. They are the team taking the gamble, while Burnley can go running to the bank with a nice, tidy bit of compensation and a pre-season friendly guaranteed.

Although clubs sign up talented boys between the ages of 8 and 14, 15, 16, the vast majority of these do not make it to the professional game.

retired_princess160

Wouldn't consider it impossible that he was advised to do so by his 'business representative' or whatever you call the presumably greedy git who takes care of this stuff.

Shermanez

As a Burnley fan, I can't help feeling we've been rogered here. He was always going to leave, and by all accounts, United handled the situation better than some, but even so. The cash will come in handy no doubt, especially considering 99% of fans hadn't heard of him a month ago.

We've had some good players come through in the last couple of season with Chaplow, McCann and Kyle Lafferty. Lower league clubs will never be able to bring through top tier talent though :-/

retired_brose

Great to see Ferguson sticking to his guns after slating Wenger for two weeks over not bringing english youngsters through the ranks :thup:

retired_ehicks84

nice to see the youth of the day following the example of inordinate twatflaps like van hooijdonk and camara.

tonyas

He probably had a verabl agreement to join the Burnley academy when he was old enough.
That verbal agreement would be enough for Burnley to be eligible for compensation if he left to join another club.

This does happen a little too often, but sometimes a player needs to go somewhere where he'll get to train with better facilities and coaches. As long as the club is compensated properly (and IMO £250K is nowhere near enough) then that should be allowed.

retired_little.splash

obviously

retired_aprol25

Liverpool used to have a 14 year old on there books and Ostenbor (think i've spelt the right) anyway he was just 15 when he signed for the scousers.

retired_stephn

I don't see a problem, this is always happening? They've just snapped him up before he got to 19 and had to pay something inflated like £10m ala Walcott/Bale. Most of the better players before 16 end up leaving lower league clubs for the better training facilities/more money/fame. Micah Richards was at Oldham, City signed him up for nothing or next to nothing and now he's worth £20m. Makes sense to snap them up for cheap and give them better training/opposition.