James Trafford, a star player for Manchester City, is reportedly getting closer to moving to Burnley.

According to The Athletic columnist Andy Jones, even Leicester City was interested in signing him as of Sunday.

Burnley appears to have moved ahead of Manchester City in the hunt to sign James Trafford, though.

The deal of James Trafford from Manchester City to Burnley appears to be going through.

The 20-year-old has had two consecutive loan stints at Bolton Wanderers, where he was nothing short of a huge hit and has

been tipped by Cole Palmer to become “world-class” via Manchester Evening News.

Trafford recently acknowledged that his objective was to play first-team football on a consistent basis outside of City, even

going so far as to say that he would not be opposed to leaving the squad in order to do so.

Now that news has surfaced that Burnley in ‘advanced stages’ of acquiring James Trafford from Manchester City, it appears

as though his wish may have been fulfilled.

The initial fee that Vincent Kompany’s side are set to pay for his services is £15 million, potentially rising to £19 million in

add-ons.

Interestingly, Pep Guardiola’s men intend to insert a buy-back clause in the deal, as well as the option of matching any

future offers for him and a 20% sell-on clause to top it off.

Manchester City simply had no choice other than to go ahead with the deal

While many may bemoan the decision from Manchester City to potentially sell James Trafford to Burnley as a repeat of the

Romeo Lavia situation, what choice did they really have?

For starters, Ederson is in the prime of his career and has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

As talented as Trafford is, the Brazilian is the archetypal goalkeeper in a Pep Guardiola team.

To add to that, an offer of £15 million for a youngster who is yet to have even played in the Championship is too good for any

club to refuse.

As a result, City have made the right decision to potentially offload Trafford, despite the repercussions that the sale could

perhaps have in the future.

Burnley closing in on Soumaïla Coulibaly loan deal with mandatory buy clause

Soumala Coulibaly, a defender for Borussia Dortmund, is reportedly close to signing a loan agreement with Burnley that

includes a buy-back requirement.

Soumala Coulibaly is expected to leave Borussia Dortmund because Burnley, a newly promoted English Premier League

team, is vying for his services. The defender will join Burnley on a loan with a buy-back requirement, claims Fabrizio

Romano. According to reports, the Black and Yellows would be paid a total of almost 15 million euros.

Coulibaly transferred from Paris Saint-Germain to Borussia Dortmund for free in 2021, but he never had a true chance to

play for the first team due to injuries and stiff competition.

The 19-year-old played just two times for the first squad and spent the majority of his time with the BVB U-23s in the 3.. In

April, he made his Bundesliga debut, although it wasn’t a good one as Stuttgart held Borussia Dortmund to a 3-3 draw.

Soumala Coulibaly will be hoping that moving to Burnley would provide him more opportunities to play and experience

more first-team games.

In addition, the highly regarded center-back will get the chance to work with and compete alongside the renowned center-

back Vincent Kompany, which will undoubtedly be beneficial to his growth. Sergio Gomez, a former winger for the BVB, was

converted by Kompany to a left-back at Anderlecht, which led to a transfer to Manchester City.