Berisha deal confirmed by Clarets

Berisha had starred in the recent Turf Moor international and for those of us who had seen him in action that night this was very much an exciting prospect. By the end of Monday it looked as though we were going to get him and by Tuesday morning Hamburg SV were confirming that they'd sold him to Burnley for £340,000 (€500,000).

All the talk yesterday morning was about the player, those who had seen him in the international were enthusing about the signing, those who hadn't were excitedly asking about his performance that night. There was only one thing dampening the enthusiasm, that there'd been no confirmation from Burnley Football Club.

As the afternoon wore on doubts were creeping in and then suddenly Hamburg removed the article from their site some twelve hours after it had first appeared. Were there problems? Was he not signing?

Those fears have been removed today with Burnley confirming that they have done a deal with German Bundesliga club Hamburg and that the deal is, as recorded yesterday, £340,000. Berisha will now sign a three year deal with the Clarets subject to the club securing a work permit.

Work permits - those dreaded words. Burnley fans recall us missing out twice on players two years ago after failing with appeals, firstly Artim Sakiri and secondly Luton Shelton. This is where Steve Cotterill takes up the story of how we concluded the deal and how we are to plan the appeal.

"Over the weekend I flew to Berlin to meet Besart, his agent and club representatives. We have sorted out a deal for £340,000, subject to us getting Besart's registration," said Cotterill. What we will have to do now is go to a work permit panel. We have put our application in and are now just waiting for a date to be finalised.

"I met with some solicitors yesterday, guys who are very up to date with procedures for work permits and they think we have a very good case. We are better and more professionally prepared with these situations than we have been, but having said that we did prepare before."

Memories of 1961 - Uwe Seeler (right) with German legend Franz Beckenbauer

And speaking about the player he added: "Besart has agreed a three-year deal and is very much looking forward to coming to England. There were two other clubs in Germany interested who offered more money but he wanted to come to Burnley and England. According to his agent there were also two other English clubs keen on him but we were the first to move."

It's over 46 years now since the two clubs were last involved. That was in the European Cup days when Jimmy McIlroy was our inside-right and Uwe Seeler was playing centre-forward for Hamburg. Who could have thought then, that one day the two clubs would be involved in a transfer deal.

Berisha is already up there with the best, he's scored against Blackburn Rovers. It might have only been a pre-season friendly in Austria last summer but he's still scored against them.