Mike Tresor is now officially a Burnley player, with the 25-year-old’s loan deal from Genk becoming permanent after an underwhelming first season in England with the Clarets.
The deal, which is said to be in the £16 million region, brings the Belgian back to Turf Moor, after a season which saw him start just three matches for the Lancashire side in the top flight.
The deal, which is said to be in the £16 million region, brings the Belgian back to Turf Moor, after a season which saw him start just three matches for the Lancashire side in the top flight.
In many ways, Tresor summed up Burnley’s campaign in the Premier League, as they struggled to get to grips with their new surroundings, and dropped back into the Football League at the first time of asking.
With that in mind, the question has to arise as to whether the club are better off trying to offload their new arrival before the season begins, and cut their ties with a player who has failed to impress during his year at the club.
Mike Tresor struggles to adapt to the Premier League after Burnley switch
Big things were expected of Tresor when he made the move to join Vincent Kompany’s side last summer, with the playmaker laying on 21 goals for his teammates in the 22/23 Jupiler Pro League season, and scoring a further eight himself.
That reputation as creator-in-chief quickly diminished once he set foot in England though, as he failed to make much of an impact in the Premier League, leaving Clarets’ fans ruing the decision to bring him to the club.
And with the further outlay coming as the transfer-obligation was triggered, Football League World Clarets’ fan pundit Ben Livingstone believes the club could benefit from a quick turnaround this summer.
Livingstone said: “Mike Tresor has not done anything at all since signing, he was really poor last season when he did play and I would have liked to see a bit more out of him, to be honest.
“It’s a lot of money that’s been spent on him now that his obligation has come into effect, and I’ve heard a few rumours that he is not even turning up to training again, so that’s an interesting one if he hasn’t turned up to training when he was supposed to.
I can see him departing this summer, one hundred percent, I think his stock is still quite high as he had the most assists in Europe the season before we signed him.
“I think you’ve got to look to get your £14 million back from him, there’s no point taking a loss so you might as well keep him, or it might well come down to whether he doesn’t want to be here anymore, and then we’d have to take a lower offer.
“But I think you’ve got to be looking at £12m+, and not take too much of a loss on him.
