Berisha a Burnley Player-Almost!

Steve Cotterill was obviously impressed by the Albanian striker, Besart Berisha in the recent England B International against the East European national team at Turf Moor

Yesterday, the rumours flying around that we had bought the striker were reported by BBC Sport and Sky Sports and featured in many papers this morning. It was also announced on the Hamburg official site only to disappear again casting doubts about whether the deal would succeed. There was also zilch news on our own Official site until today.

The Clarets have now agreed a deal with German Bundesliga club Hamburg SV for striker Besart Berisha.

The 21-year-old is reported to be signing a three year deal at Turf Moor for £340,000, subject to the club securing Besart's registration.

He has made 12 appearances for Hamburg, scoring one goal. Prior to that he spent time on loan at a Superliga Danish club AC Horsens, and with 11 goals, became the club's league top scorer in 2005-06.

Berisha made his debut for the Albanian national team in October 2006 against Holland.

He was Man of the Match for Albania at Turf Moor against England B scoring also his first International goal.

Steve Cotterill had this to say about the process trying to sign the striker

'Over the weekend I flew to Berlin to meet Besart, his agent and club representatives. We have sorted out a deal for £340,000, subject to us getting Besart's registration,'

'What we will have to do now is go to a work permit panel. We have put our application in and are now just waiting for a date to be finalised.

'I met with some solicitors yesterday, guys who are very up to date with procedures for work permits and they think we have a very good case.

'We are better and more professionally prepared with these situations than we have been, but having said that we did prepare before.

'Besart has agreed a three-year deal and is very much looking forward to coming to England. There were two other clubs in Germany interested who offered more money but he wanted to come to Burnley and England.

'According to his agent there were also two other English clubs keen on him but we were the first to move.'

Most Clarets will still be edgey about the words 'work permit' and we have to hope we come out tops with this one after losing out on Luton Shelton and Sakiri a few seasons back!

Sounds like we mean business this time with a better skilled team on the legal front. Lets hope so!

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