News is breaking this morning that the Clarets have done a deal with the Yorkshire club for a fee believed to be around £1.75 million and it is now thought that Akinbiyi will remain in England and head to Sheffield where he will discuss terms on what will surely be his inevitable move to the club he turned down less than a year ago.
Whichever way you look at it, this is a massive blow for the supporters of Burnley Football Club, to lose the leading scorer in the transfer window just as we did last season. It is also a massive blow to the manager and the rest of the squad. Whatever money is allocated to the manager it comes with just days left to the closing of the window and with clubs ready to demand ridiculous amounts for players.
Apparently we didn’t want to sell him, the chief executive kept telling us that, but the simple fact is we have been virtually touting him for the last week with some of the comments coming out of Turf Moor. The view from many fans is that the club did want to sell and were doing their best to get as big a price as possible for him. It now looks as if they have succeeded.
Where that leaves Steve Cotterill is anyone’s guess. He was very much upset last week and told the media that he had no control over players leaving the club, this will have done nothing to improve that situation.