As yet another Premier League game passed Wout Weghorst by, the Burnley supporters could have been forgiving for wondering what all the fuss was about.
He was supposed to be their saviour. Their 6ft 6ins knight in shining armour. At the very least, a substantial upgrade on the departing Chris Wood.
In the end, Weghorst will be remembered at Turf Moor not as a solution but as a symptom. If he’d found a way past a sprawling Tyrone Mings during the penultimate game of 2021/22, Burnley might still be a Premier League team now.
But Mings succeeded, Weghorst failed, and The Clarets will soon be going head-to-head with Luton rather than Liverpool, Middlesbrough rather than Manchester City. Small margins, maybe, but these were the moments Weghorst was brought in to decide in Burnley’s favour.
And it seems that the goal-shy centre-forward has no plans to stick around and make good on Burnley’s £12 million investment either.
“We have clearly agreed in advance that I will not play in the Championship,” the former Wolfsburg talisman tells Voetbal International.
“The club would like to keep me. (Burnley) will do everything they can to return to the Premier League as soon as possible. (But) it is important that I can perform at a high level, with a view to the World Cup in Qatar.”
Tottenham wanted Wout Weghorst before Burnley move
Of course, Weghorst alone is not responsible for Burnley’s demise. He is a striker that relies on service after all. Service that was not often forthcoming. He spent much of his time in claret-and-blue with a permanent frown etched upon his face, opposition centre-halves gobbled up countless punts to no-one in particular.
You cannot expect Gordon Ramsey to cook up a Michelin star meal on a broken hob, right?
But with just two goals in 20 games – fewer than Chris Wood managed in the first half of the campaign – Weghorst will ultimately be remembered at Turf Moor as a man who promised much but delivered painfully little.
To think, it’s not long since the giant Dutchman was being linked with a £32 million move to some of the biggest clubs on the continent. Tottenham made a move in the summer of 2020. Arsenal and Inter Milan had also been linked at various points.
“Shortly before the transfer market closed, Tottenham Hotspur got serious,” Weghorst said at the time. “Those were hectic days.”
Tottenham’s recent record, when it comes to signing centre-forwards, certainly leaves a lot to be desired. Weghorst surely would have fared better alongside superior footballers in North London. But a record of just two goals in five months at Burnley does little for the argument that he’d have been more Harry Kane than Fernando Llorente.
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