Burnley FC: How AI values Maxime Esteve, Luca Koleosho and Josh Brownhill's transfer worth | OneFootball

Based on a number of factors, AI has had its say on how much Luca Koleosho, Josh Brownhill and Maxime Esteve are worth

Having just dropped out of the Premier League, it's little surprise to see some of Burnley's remaining players they came down with attracting interest from current top-flight clubs.

That's certainly one of the biggest challenges relegation brings, as they found out in the summer when a raft of departures decimated their squad.

Naturally, that forced a wave of incomings to offset the damage, but the players still at the club attracting the most interest are those who were with the club in the Premier League.

Luca Koleosho, Josh Brownhill, and Maxime Esteve have all been linked with moves away over the past six months but the burning question of how much they're worth has split opinion.

AI has now waded in on that debate, with footballtransfers.com launching a model where AI - trained on around 600,000 transfers - calculates a player's transfer value based on a number of different factors, such as age, position, performance, experience, league, and contract status.

Age, position, performance levels, league strength and length of contract all play their part in dictating a player's worth, and this AI model has spoken out on the worth of Burnley's three potential January movers.

Luca Koleosho's value is well below Burnley's summer valuation

After setting a £40m summer price tag for Koleosho, it was a little surprising to see the winger valued at a little over £5.5m by footballtransfers.com's AI model.

That suggests that Burnley wants almost eight times as much as he's actually worth in AI's eyes, and with Koleosho's stats flattering to deceive, if the model was based on stats alone, then it would be hard to disagree too much with their valuation.

It does become a little puzzling though when considering he's just signed a new five-year deal and is just 19 years of age with half a season of Premier League experience behind him.

It's evident to see for anyone who's watched Koleosho play that he's certainly not just a £5.5m player and he has the potential to play regular top-flight football, hence why the likes of Bayern Munich and Wolves have been credited with an interest in him.

AI does however suggest that Koleosho has the third-highest potential skill rating in the Championship, so there's potential for his stock to grow exponentially.

Josh Brownhill's value as per AI has steadily declined

Brownhill's value has steadily declined and it's not because he's become a worse footballer, it's because his contract is coming to an end.

In July 2021, AI estimated Brownhill to be worth around £11.3m, whereas his current valuation is believed to be around £3m, largely due to the fact he's got a little over six months left on his current deal.

Burnley were reportedly offered more than that for him in the summer by Trabzonspor and rejected it in favour of keeping their club captain, so if AI's model is to be believed and he truly is only worth £3m, it's hard to see him leaving Turf Moor in January.

Compare that with Esteve and his estimated value graph has gone in the complete opposite direction, with his contract situation meaning that his value has continued on an upward trajectory.

Like Koleosho, Esteve also penned a new five-year deal in September, and in reaction to those extra years on his contract, AI estimated his value rose by almost £10m.

His estimated value today stands at just shy of £15m, the highest value of any Burnleyplayer, although in reality that isn't far off the fee he moved to Burnley for, so in the actual reality of the transfer window, he's probably worth an awful lot more.