 |
| David NUGNET |
Clarets Mad Sources (probably no more reliable than Sky Sports Understands) believe that, whilst the suggestion of an offer may be wide of the mark, there is some interest from Burnley in a player we tried to sign four years ago.
That was immediately after relegation and then manager Brian Laws was beaten to his signature by West Brom who had just replaced us in the Premier League, and it was a deal favoured by Rochdale who were able to retain his services for a further season.
Now, four years on, Sean Dyche is keen to bring him to Turf Moor as he, just as Tony Mowbray was doing then, starts to build his Premier League squad.
Dawson's is not the only name to have been linked with us this summer. Some of them certainly won't be coming to Turf Moor and Matty Fryatt falls into that category. He was one of the strikers linked with a temporary move to Burnley during last season but at the time Steve Bruce, his manager at Hull, said he was going nowhere.
Bruce hasn't been able to stop him moving this time. Fryatt had an offer on the table at Hull but instead has opted to sign for Stuart Pearce at Nottingham Forest.
Over the weekend came the link with Man City midfielder Emyr Huws. He impressed with Birmingham last season in the Championship, scoring one of his two goals against us, the other was an absolute screamer at Middlesbrough, and the suggestion is that City now want him to get some Premier League experience on loan.
That might be one to keep an eye out for but I'm not so sure about Congo midfielder Prince Oniangue who Sky linked us with last week.
Initially I thought it might be a romantic signing given that he currently plays for Reims who were our first ever opponents in the European Cup in 1960, but then I remembered Besart Berisha being signed from Hamburg and that quashed those thoughts.
Another name to conjure with was that of Alfred Finnbogason who has been scoring goals for fun at Heerenveen in the Dutch Eredivisie. The Icelandic international has scored no less than 59 in 71 appearances.
Oniangue and Finnbogason. I wondered, should we sign them, what might happen should someone want one of their names on the back of their shirt. Last time we were in the Premier League someone ordered such a shirt and when they collected it, it read NUGNET.
Interestingly Nugnet Nugent has been linked with us again. He's been offered a new deal at Leicester though and is expected to sign it. They are in the same league as us, of course, so that means two more goals I expect from the smiling assassin.
It's good fun seeing the names come and go, seeing some enthused about on the message board and others very quickly dismissed.
Finnbogason certainly caused some excitement, as has Dawson, but so did Troy Deeney and James McArthur (that's with a Mc and not X-Factor winner James Arthur). It has to be said that a return for former Clarets Chris Eagles and Charlie Austin, along with the likes of Steven Reid and David Ngog, didn't offer quite so much enthusiasm.
There are sure to be more names thrown into the hat in the next few weeks, it's par for the course for a Premier League club.
Dyche suggested it might be close to the time the players come back for pre-season training before there is any transfer news. I would think that date, given the start of the season, is now around a month away.
Until then, the speculation will continue, other than next Wednesday when we have the fixtures to discuss. Will they really send us to Palace on the opening day?