Half a million for Eckersley

Last updated : 01 March 2010 By Tony Scholes
Richard Eckersley
After the two clubs failed to agree on a fee it went to a Football Association tribunal last week with Burnley believed to have offered £300,000 and Manchester United looking for £1 million.

The decision this morning is we have to pay £500,000 for him with add ons and that's a result Burnley chief executive Paul Fletcher is happy with.

"The outcome is satisfactory," Fletcher said. "When the smallest club in the league tries to take on the biggest club in the league you always wonder how it's going to end up, but we thank the tribunal for taking a common sense approach to this.

"We have always valued the player around the £300,000 mark until he starts establishing himself in the first team and when Manchester United were asking a million plus we thought we had to stand up and be counted and that's what we did.

"The tribunal was represented by administrators of the Premier League who have hopefully seen the common sense of the way Burnley tries to run its business with sensible numbers, rather than allowing ourselves to get into financial difficulties further down the line."

Fletcher attended the hearing with manager Brian Laws while Sir Alex Ferguson, David Gill and the club lawyers were part of the Manchester United team giving evidence.