Things haven’t been going so well for Vincent Kompany and Burnley this season, with the Clarets currently 19th in the Premier League table with just a point.
Only Luton Town are below them in the table indicating the harsh realities of life in the English top flight to the Belgian’s players.
There’s still a very long way to go in the 2023/24 season of course, and Kompany will likely be hoping that sooner or later something clicks, and they can start making their way up the table.
Their task might have been made easier if they had been able to sign 25-year-old marksman, Dodi Lukebakio, from Hertha Berlin in the summer.
A fellow Belgian, Sport BILD reported that Burnley had made a £9.5m bid for his services in the transfer window.
However, he ended up moving to La Liga outfit, Sevilla, and, according to an interview he gave to Spanish daily, MARCA, it seems to have been an easy decision.
“When a club like Sevilla show interest, of course you have to listen,” he was quoted as saying.
“We then talked a lot. You don’t have to think that much because they are a top club and that’s what I want, to play to show myself, to improve as a young player. It wasn’t difficult to choose Sevilla.”
Given that the Andalusians were bottom of the Spanish top-flight until their win over Las Palmas at the weekend, a game in which Lukebakio played his first minutes for the club and scored the winner, he might’ve been forgiven for thinking that his initial choice had been ill advised at best.
Perhaps now he can kick-start his career in Spain, whilst Kompany will want his side to kick on too.
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Had Leeds United wrapped up an £8.5 million deal for Joseph Paintsil in the final week of the window, Genk may have found themselves adapting to life without two players who, between them, mustered a staggering 64 goal contributions in 2022/23 alone.
Leeds eventually walked away from Paintsil after feeling that Genk had ‘moved the goalposts’ in negotiations (Sky Sports).
The Ghana international then turned down the chance to join Southampton as part of a deal that would have seen Paul Onuachu move in the other direction.
And while Tresor will take some replacing – a tally of 24 assists last season better than every player in Europe’s major leagues – Vandereycken believes that Paintsil’s greater threat from open play renders him more ‘irreplaceable’ than Burnley’s deadline day addition.
Leeds and Southampton miss out on Joseph Paintsil
“I enjoyed the opening goal,” Vandereycken tells Het Belang Van Limburg; Paintsil assisting Andi Zeqiri’s opener away to Union Saint Gilloise on Saturday.
“Paintsil did very well. The right pass at the right time at the right speed.
“It is more important for Genk’s game that Paintsil has stayed than Tresor.
The latter was very good in terms of kicking technique. (Tresor’s) crosses and free-kicks were sublime.
“But Paintsil is more threatening. Zeqiri was able to easily score his first goal thanks to Paintsil’s sublime assist.”
According to The Athletic, Tresor could eventually set Burnley back around £15 million should the Clarets opt to turn his loan deal into a permanent transfer in 2024.
Paintsil, meanwhile, has no regrets about turning his nose up at a Southampton side who have now conceded nine goals in their last two games, cascading out of the Championship’s play-off places as a result.
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