Clarets value Austin at £1.2 million

Last updated : 28 January 2011 By Tony Scholes
Eddie Howe - looking to sign a new forward
The news of the deal has come from Tom Killick, manager of Austin's former club Poole Town who was asked about the valuation of his former striker. "I don't feel qualified to say whether Charlie is definitely worth £1.2 million, but what I will say is he's a young player capable of improving.

"When you look at transfer fees being put on other players' heads nowadays, you would have to say £1.2 million looks like a reasonable amount for him."

Austin has gone on to score 37 goals in 63 games for Swindon and Killick continued: "He's been a prolific scorer since he went to Swindon and he's still young. There are plenty of clubs interested in him. It's not as if this is an isolated case. I think Swindon have already turned down similar bids from Hull and possibly Millwall in the summer.

"Clearly it's not just Burnley who think he's worth that money. I think there are a whole cluster of clubs. So based on his scoring record and age, he must be worth that fee."

Killick confirmed that Burnley had shown an interest in Austin under previous manager Brian Laws and felt the interest would remain so under Howe. He said: "Eddie made it clear he wanted to sign Charlie when he was at Bournemouth but was unable to because of an embargo stopping Cherries signing players at the time. He would have wanted to have sorted something out for Charlie."

The suggestions are that How must be looking to strengthen his forward power with links last night to Everton's James Vaughan, a player who scored against us last season in the Premier League.

We came close to taking Vaughan on loan earlier in the season before he went to Palace. There would be some competition here with Palace believed to have made an offer for him and with Sven Goran Eriksson keen to take him to Leicester.