Premier League trio Leicester City, Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers reportedly want to take Dwight McNeil away from Burnley.
With the future of Dwight McNeil once again cast into doubt, comments made by the typically honest Sean Dyche earlier in the year are worth repeating.
According to TEAMtalk, Leicester City are at the front of the queue to sign a player who has gone from little-known youngster to £30 million prized asset in the space of just 12 months at Burnley.
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton are interested too in a former Manchester United teen who is now an established Premier League star and England U21 international.
And Dyche is under no illusions that McNeil, who possesses a left-foot and the pinpoint crossing ability that most players can only dream of, has the potential to quickly outgrow the rather humble surrounds of Turf Moor. Should McNeil find himself at the centre of a £30 million transfer tug-of-war in January, you’d imagine the former Watford boss would be rather proud of the winger’s rapid rise in claret and blue.
“He’s a very good player. He remains very humble, he remains driven to what he wants to do, and they remain important qualities,” the gravel-voiced gaffer told the Burnley Express back in July.
“You’ve got to remain like that to really go to the top, to maximise himself with us, and I think he can go beyond us and on to pastures new at a higher level of club, certainly what’s deemed a higher level of club.”
Without wanting to get into that whole slagging match of ‘who is bigger than who’, it would be somewhat churlish to suggest that a move to Leicester, Wolves or even struggling Everton would not be at least a minor step up for a player who shot to fame at Burnley with a masterful performance in a 2018 Europa League play-off against Olympiakos.
Everton, for all their faults, are one of the most historic and well supported clubs in the country. Wolves have money on their side and an ambitious project, funded by Chinese billionaires.
And as for Leicester, well, on current form it would be a big surprise if the Foxes weren’t playing Champions League football next season.
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