Fee revelation emerges as Everton chase Burnley, Kyle Walker agreement | OneFootball

The former England defender is set for a return to the Premier League following the Clarets' relegation at the end of 2025-26.

Kyle Walker could be headed for a swift return to the Premier League following Burnley's relegation back to the Championship.

Burnley face a stiff challenge in 2026-27 as they seek a return to the Premier League, and they now seem likely to have to do so without their most experienced player with the news that former England international Kyle Walker could be set to leave the club to return to the top-flight with Everton.

Walker joined the Clarets from Manchester City for a fee of up to £5 million in the summer of 2025, but his contribution was unable to keep the Lancashire club in the Premier League for another season. Burnley were relegated in 19th place in the table. With just four wins from their 38 League matches, they ended the season nineteen points from safety, with manager Scott Parker sacked before the end of the season.

He was replaced during the summer by Nicky Hayen, who spent the 2025-26 season with Club Brugge and Genk. Burnley kicked off their season in the EFL Cup with a shootout win against Notts County in which Walker scored the winning penalty following a 1-1 draw against the newly-promoted League One outfit.

Kyle Walker is set for a Premier League return with Everton

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The Sun reports that Kyle Walker is set to return to the Premier League with Everton this summer, following Burnley's relegation from the Premier League. But the Clarets are unlikely to cash in on this transfer, with the newspaper reporting that, if he joins Everton, it will be for a 'nominal fee'.

Walker signed a two-year contract when he joined Burnley last summer, but having turned 36 years of age at the end of May and with just a year left on his Turf Moor contract, it is clear that there is no resale value in the player, meaning that Everton will pick up the defender for an extremely modest transfer fee.

The details of Walker's transfer fee for the Manchester City move are unclear, but it's likely that the performance-related element will have made up a substantial part of it, and that this "performance" will have been related to the Clarets staying in the Premier League at the end of 2025-26.

Walker had previously been connected to a potential return to the club at which he started his career, Sheffield United, but this potential move has failed to materialise.

What fans are saying about Walker's rumoured exit to Everton

Fans of different clubs have reacted to the rumours connecting Kyle Walker to Everton, and here some of the highlights.

This Burnley fan can't understand why his club would be selling him to a Premier League club for a nominal fee when they paid £5 million for him last summer:

And this Everton fan isn't optimistic for what it says about his club, if they're in the market for a player of this age:

But this fan feels that Walker could add stability to the Everton defence:

And this fan feels that this was a move that Everton should have made several years ago rather than this summer:

Kyle Walker may wish to keep proving himself at the highest level

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Despite his advancing years, talk of an imminent return to the Premier League with Everton indicates that Kyle Walker may want to continue to test himself at the highest level, even though he'll be 37 years of age by the end of the 2026-27 season.

The timing of this story is, however, something of a curiosity. It was published less than 24 hours after Walker was present at the launch day for the new EFL season in Manchester, and at this event, the BBC reported that Walker had said that, "This club has had ups and downs, but we need to bounce back and stay in the Premier League for the things this club does for everyone."

Walker's individual statistics at Burnley for the 2025-26 season were decent, despite his team's relegation. He played in 36 of their 38 Premier League matches, of which 35 were starts.

Everton have already raided the Championship for one highly-rated player this summer, having paid an initial fee of £16.5 million - which could rise to £24 million with add-ons - to Middlesbrough for midfielder Hayden Hackney, who left The Riverside Stadium with one year left to run on his Boro contract.

And it's possible that their move for Walker could have been influenced by the summer transfer activity of Premier League rivals Chelsea, who have brought in two very experienced older players in the form of Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson from Brighton and Brentford respectively.

The Clarets could do without this sort of distraction with less than a week to go before the start of their Championship season. West Ham United and Wolves are the pre-season favourites to win promotion back to the Premier League, but the division was extremely tight last season and Burnley will want a strong start to consolidate their position in what may be an extremely open division in 2026-27. There's a possibility that they could yet have to do this without their most experienced defender.