West Bromwich Albion youngster Oliver Burke hasn’t had a great few years after initially impressing through Nottingham Forest’s Academy ranks, and in the second half of the 2018/19 campaign, he finds himself out with Scottish giants Celtic.
The 21-year-old’s time at The Hawthorns has largely gone the way of his spell at RB Leipzig where despite his obvious talent, he hasn’t produced and demanded a first team spot. That has changed at Celtic and although his form has been up and down (admittedly playing an unfamiliar role on occasions), he does boast four goals in eleven starts and three substitute showings, and he has impressed more often than not it seems from reports.
With his future open for debate given he’s worked himself back into the Scotland squad, BBC pundit Don Hutchinson has stated that he feels he should stay at Celtic Park next season to continue re-establishing himself and getting his career further back on track.
Speaking to 5 Live recently, he explained.
“There’s no need for Ollie Burke to move away from Celtic because at the present time, the form he has been in, not amazing form but better form from where he was a year ago. He probably wouldn’t get in most Premier League sides at the moment, not starting anyway. So this is no disrespect to Celtic but it’s a great place for Ollie Burke to try and improve, play well, and have an atmosphere and a crowd that are going to drive him on and a manager in Neil Lennon, or whoever it may be in the summer, that will drive him on to the next level. If I was giving Ollie Burke advice, I’d say stay at Celtic as long as you can as that is the place for you to learn your trade and get yourself to a high level.”
Praise with a feint damning really to reverse the phrase and whilst I see the thrust of the point Hutchinson is trying to make, I can only think he hasn’t done his homework as Celtic do not have a buy clause on the deal and Burke is set to return over the summer whether he wants to or not.
Given we splashed out a reported £15million for his services back in August 2017, whilst we’ll no doubt have to take a hit (could the Board cope with that) if we decided to move him on, I can’t for a second believe we’d sanction a £6million hit as that would mean Celtic matching their record transfer fee of £9million.
