Should Oliver Burke’s decline be a warning for Forest’s Ben Brereton

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West Bromwich Albion flop Oliver Burke left Nottingham Forest too early and Ben Brereton must be wary of making the same mistake.

As Patrick Bamford and Oliver Burke may attest, the grass is not always greener elsewhere.

Both players upped and left Nottingham Forest right at the start of their careers and, while Bamford has shown glimpses of the potential that encouraged Chelsea to pay £1.5 million for him, Burke’s career has nosedived since.

In the last 18 months, Burke has moved twice for a combined total of £25 million. But during spells at RB Leipzig in Germany and West Bromwich Albion in England, he has managed just six league starts.

West Brom invested a club-record £15 million in the winger, handing Leipzig a £2 million profit despite Burke’s Bundesliga struggles. But the 20-year-old has already become something of an afterthought, starting just one of his nine league appearances.

The Sun (14 January, page 59) even reported that the Baggies would have considered selling Burke in January in order to raise funds for new additions.

So perhaps Forest’s current fresh-faced whizzkid, Ben Brereton, should consider Burke’s fall from grace with his future set to come under even more scrutiny over the summer.

According to the Daily Mail, Tottenham Hotspur have watched the teenage striker on a number of occasions and would have been very impressed as he tore apart North London rivals Arsenal in Forest’s famous 4-2 FA Cup win in January.

Brereton, a homegrown and hungry talent, is exactly the sort of player that tends to thrive under Mauricio Pochettino with the likes of Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Kyle Walker becoming England regulars after honing their trade under the Argentine.

But Brereton should learn from Burke about the dangers of moving too soon.