Vincent Kompany’s Championship leaders Burnley are back in pursuit of Jovane Cabral with the Sporting Lisbon winger likely to leave the Portuguese giants on loan during the final day of the January transfer window, according to O Jogo.
Earlier this month, the Clarets snapped up Ameen Al Dakhil some six months after seeing a £3.5 million bid rejected by Sint Triuiden. Clearly, this is not a team who tends to take ‘no’ for an answer.
Burnley agreed a £4.5 million fee with Sporting in August (Record). Convincing the player himself was the hard part, however; Jovane opting to stay put and fight for his place rather than link up with a side who had recently been relegated from the Premier League.
Burnley still hope to sign Jovane Cabral from Sporting Lisbon
Flash forward to January, and Burnley find themselves in a much stronger bargaining position. Jovane has played just 36 minutes of league football all season, managing a grand total of zero starts in all competitions. If he wanted to fight for his place, it’s a fight he’s losing.
Burnley, meanwhile, are a Championship team in name only. They are 17 points clear of third place Middlesbrough in the automatic promotion positions. Did we mention Burnley also have a game in hand?
Jovane will know that, if he makes a different decision this time around, there is a very real chance he could be a Premier League player by 2023/24.
Burnley, O Jogo say, returned for the 24-year-old Cape Verde international on the penultimate day of the window. Serie A outfit Salernitana are interested too, but would first have to free up space in their squad before they can get Jovane on board. The forward’s previous spell in Italy didn’t exactly go to plan either; mustering just four appearances on loan at Lazio.
His reputation, meanwhile, has plummeted over the last 18 months or so. Burnley is perhaps the best offer he is likely to receive between now and tomorrow’s deadline.
“Jovane is an asset to Sporting. He is a great talent. A great player,” former Sporting president Sousa Cintra once said. “When I was signing the contract renewal with him, I wanted a bigger (release) clause. I wanted it to be 120 million.
“I told him at the time; ‘Look Jovane, you see Luis Figo or Cristiano Ronaldo, you’re going to be as good as they are ‘. And he answered me; ‘No Mr President, I’m going to be better’.”
Clearly, Jovane doesn’t lack self confidence. Now, it’s high-time he proved he has the ability to back up his talk.
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