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Harley joined the Clarets in August 2005 as the replacement for Mo Camara who had left that summer for Celtic, also on a Bosman. He came in initially on loan to enable him to play in two games against Derby and Reading before making his move a permanent one for £75,000 in the following week.
For the next two seasons he was a regular in the side and missed only one game in each season, both through a one match suspension having reached five yellow cards, but this season he found his path to first team action more difficult following the signing of Stephen Jordan from Manchester City.
With Jordan in at left back he started the season on the left hand side of midfield but quickly lost his place, and didn't get back into the side until the away game at Leicester when Jordan moved into the centre because of a shortage of central defenders.
Jordan was outstanding in that game before injury forced him off just before half time. He was out for a while and that allowed Harley, just as Owen Coyle was coming in as manager, to establish himself back in the side at left back.
He's retained the place too, although had to play in midfield a couple of times because of the run of red cards in December, and he's very much deserved to retain that place with some outstanding displays. He's probably shown better form than at any time during his three years at Burnley.
Harley is one of a number of players out of contract. We know that Wade Elliott is considering a new deal and that the club are looking at extending the stays of other players. Clearly one of those players we want to keep is Harley and it now looks, if our unerringly accurate tabloid is correct, that he's turned it down and is ready to move on at the end of the season.