Burnley FC may come to regret rejecting £25m Wolves transfer offer in summer window | OneFootball

Rejecting a bumper offer for Luca Koleosho in the summer will have left Burnley tinged with regret

After returning from a serious knee injury at the start of the campaign, this was expected to be the season in which Luca Koleosho really kicked on for Burnley, but that couldn't have been further from what actually happened.

The young Clarets prodigy has struggled for form since returning to action and looks a shadow of the player that got injured in December 2023, but Scott Parker continued to persist with him for most of the season.

Koleosho has been sidelined through injury over the last few weeks, but is closing in on a return to action and a chance to redeem himself for a poor start to the season which saw him flit in and out of the team.

It would be fair to say Burnley haven't particularly missed him in recent weeks, and the fact striker Lyle Foster had been playing on the wing instead of him in January is a damning indictment of just how poor Koleosho has been this season.

There was heavy transfer interest in the youngster over the summer from Wolves, but that move never materialised, and Burnley must be looking back now tinged with regret that they never took the £25m the Midlands club offered in August.

Luca Koleosho hasn't looked like a £25m player for Burnley this season

When Koleosho was taken off in December 2023 with his nasty knee injury, coincidentally against Wolves, Burnley fans were disheartened, wondering just how they'd get by without a man who had set the Premier League alight in the first half of the campaign.

It was no great surprise that there turned out to be interest in Koleosho, who had impressed in his debut top-flight campaign, but with the injury, there was a huge question of how he would bounce back.

He hasn't really answered those questions in any kind of impressive fashion, and this season he's looked nowhere near a £25m player, failing to stand out at a lesser level to the one he was playing at last season.

Where last season he could sprint through the tightest of gaps to open doors, Koleosho is now running into defenders. Last season he could deliver crosses into the box, this season they're going out for goal kicks. Anything that could possibly have gone wrong for him has done.

After the seriousness of his injury, Koleosho has lost that yard of electric pace and that's really hindered his game because pace was his main attribute on the wing.

Burnley will regret holding out for £40m from Wolves for Luca Koleosho

Burnley spent a mere £2.6m to sign Koleosho from Espanyol in the summer of 2023, and even selling for the £25m Wolves offered would've been a near 10-times return on investment for the club.

But owner Alan Pace reportedly insisted on holding out for £40m, and it looks like he's been left with egg on his face as Koleosho can't be worth anywhere near the £25m right now that they were offered in the summer.

After a season that looks like it will fizzle out into insignificance for the fleet-footed winger, if Burnley try to sell again in the summer, they'll be lucky to get half as much as what Wolves offered.

There's reported interest from Bayern Munich and former boss Vincent Kompany ahead of the summer which Burnley can look to capitalise upon, and the fact Koleosho has recently signed a five-year deal means they'll still be able to command a sizeable fee.

But after a disappointing campaign on the pitch and continued injury problems, Burnley are probably looking more around the £10m mark for the young star.