Vincent Kompany won’t believe £12.8m Burnley transfer news | OneFootball

Burnley have been undergoing a huge summer of change following relegation from the Premier League, but one sale will surprise their former manager.

Relegation from the Premier League at the end of the 2025-26 season has resulted in a summer of change at Turf Moor, and their former manager may be disappointed by one of their sales in particular.

Another relegation from the Premier League has resulted in huge changes at Burnley over the course of the summer. Scott Parker was sacked before the end of the 2025-26 season, and was finally replaced by Nicky Hayen in July, while 14 players have left the club since their return to the Championship was confirmed.

Such a level of change is to be expected following relegation from the Premier League. Players want to continue to play at the highest level that they can, while others may be considered luxuries that a club can afford, given the drastic reduction in revenue which comes with dropping from the top-flight into the Championship.

But one of their sales this summer may raise an eyebrow or two in Germany. Former Burnley manager Vincent Kompany has gone on to great things since leaving Turf Moor for Bayern Munich in 2024, but he may be surprised at the identity of one of the players that the club have chosen to move on.

Luca Koleosho sale to Paris FC does represent good business for Burnley

Action Images

The sale of 21-year-old winger Luca Koleosho to Paris FC for a fee reported by L'Equipe to have been between £8.5 million and £12.8 million represents a good bit of business for Burnley, given that they only paid £2.6 million to sign him from the Spanish club Espanyol in 2023.

But Vincent Kompany, who was the Clarets manager at the time of his signing, may take a slightly different view. Kompany was a real cheerleader for Koleosho. When a knee injury disrupted the winger's first season with the club, Kompany said of the player, "He was achieving a level of his own, you don't replace that simply by putting another person in."

And given the extent to which Koleosho had clearly impressed Kompany, it wasn't too much of a surprise when Bayern were even linked with the possibility of making a move for him themselves. This didn't come to pass, but the manager may well be shocked at the extent to which the winger's career has failed to take off since his departure from the club.

What Burnley fans have been saying about the sale of Luca Koleosho to Paris FC?

Action Images

The sale of Luca Koleosho has prompted a big reaction from Burnley fans on social media, so here's a selection of what they've had to say about it all.

This fan is concerned about what the sale of Koleosho says about the club owners' commitment to Burnley.

This Burnley fan feels that the injuries suffered by the winger have derailed his career.

This fan feels that the player upped his performances in pre-season in order to get a move to France.

And this one feels that the club may have sold him a little bit too soon.

Luca Koleosho has refound his form and confidence in 2026

Action Images

The knee injury sustained by Luca Koleosho in December 2023 certainly seemed to have a serious effect on the winger's career trajectory, if viewed from a Burnley perspective. He missed the whole second half of the 2023-24 season, and although he started the 2024-25 season back in the team, by the end of their promotion campaign he was out of favour and on the bench.

The decision was taken to loan him out, but a season-long return to Spain with Espanyol didn't work as he'd have hoped. Over the first half of last season, he made just three league appearances for them from the bench, amassing just 60 minutes of game-time and failing to appear at all after the first weekend in October.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he was withdrawn from Espanyol at the end of 2025 and sent on loan to Paris FC instead. He settled better there, and made 16 Ligue Un appearances for them over the second half of the season. Paris FC had an option to buy the player at the end of the season, and they have chosen to activate this.

While Burnley have made a decent return on the sale of Koleosho, the decision of Burnley owner Alan Pace to slap a £40 million price on his head hasn't aged well. Bayern Munich's interest in him tailed off pretty quickly after that, and it only took until the following March before they were exploring alternative options.

Koleosho is clearly a talented player. Indeed, his summer started with making his international debut for Italy, so the move to Paris can hardly be considered to have been a failure for the player. The half-season that he enjoyed in Ligue Un coupled with this recognition indicate that he's turned a corner and may even be able to look forward to fulfilling the potential that Vincent Kompany saw in him when he was in charge at Turf Moor. Burnley will only be able to look on from the sidelines to see if he can hit the heights that his former manager considered him capable of reaching.