Burnley miss out on Whelan

Last updated : 01 February 2008 By Tony Scholes
Three weeks ago the news broke that Burnley were in the hunt for the midfielder who is out of contract at the end of the season. It was Sheffield Wednesday who confirmed they had received an offer from Burnley for Whelan which was believed to be £400,000.

We expected Burnley to go back with an increase to their opening bid but manager Owen Coyle confirmed that, for now, we weren't going to increase it and had made an offer based on what we believed to be the player's worth.

It all went quiet afterwards but it as always thought Burnley would push it the closer we got to the deadline for a player who we were very keen to bring to Turf Moor. Even this week there were strong suggestions that Coyle still wanted his man.

But midnight was reached with no further moves, and then literally just a minute after the window closed it was confirmed that he'd made a £500,000 move to Stoke after the Potteries club met that asking price.

Whelan has signed a three and a half year deal with Stoke and his signing has taken their spending to over £4.5 million in transfer fees during January as they make a strong push for promotion.

The player becomes the second Burnley target to have moved on the last day of the window following Barry Robson's transfer from Dundee United to Celtic.