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"How would you like an Albanian international at Burnley next season?" one fan said to me at half time after seeing Besart stand out. As much as I liked the idea it wasn't anything I ever considered possible despite the fact that at the same time he was impressing Clarets' boss Steve Cotterill.
It was possible and then probable. Steve moved in and got him on a three year contract from the German Bundesliga club for £340,000 (€500,000) but then came the two dreaded words - WORK and PERMIT. Original thoughts were that he would hold German citizenship but that was not the case and so we had to go to today's appeal hearing.
Throughout the whole period, from then until now, Steve Cotterill has remained confident that this time we would be successful having previously failed in 2005 with appeals for Artim Sakiri and Luton Shelton. I've spoken to people with far more knowledge on the procedures than I could ever have and they all came back telling me that we should have no problem.
Even armed with that information I just waited today in the hope that my confidence was not ill founded, and was both relieved and delighted when I heard the news that it had been successful. Well done to everyone concerned in this appeal, to those from Burnley Football Club, from the football world and the legal experts.
We can now welcome Besart Berisha back to Turf Moor, this time as a Claret and that will be brilliant news for the player who has been so keen to complete the signing. His agent said: "He has a good knowledge of English football. It is true football, and he liked it very much when he was in Burnley. He had a feeling people accepted the way he was playing.
"He liked the stadium, he liked the place, and he told me immediately that it would be a good step for him, and that was even before we spoke to Burnley. When he heard he had the chance to go there he wanted to do it immediately."
