“Offer on the table” – Player reveals Burnley made ‘biggest effort’ to sign him, no ‘regret’ deal never happened

Over the course of the summer transfer window, Burnley, who had just been promoted to the Premier League, were looking for a new goalkeeper.

One of the players the Clarets targeted, likely from the recommendation of a certain Vincent Kompany, was Jean Butez, currently at Royal Antwerp FC.

We covered some of the Burnley interest when it was taking place, but it has now been confirmed by the 28-year-old himself, who spoke about his situation with Sudinfo, relayed by FootNews in Belgium.

Asked about his summer and whether or not there he had chances to leave his club, something he was potentially looking to do, his answer was rather candid.He stated: “There were contacts with many clubs, including Burnley, who made the biggest effort. There was even an offer on the table. It was an opportunity during this transfer window. When you’re the number one goalkeeper of the champions of Belgium, they’re obviously interest from elsewhere.

“My agent dealt with things with Burnley. There was a talk with Vincent Kompany, who is very active in the recruitment, since he’s a manager in the English manner. Now, I wasn’t the only goalkeeper on the list, we saw that with them signing James Trafford afterwards, but I don’t have a regret, nor a frustration with what happened.”

As pointed out by Butez, Burnley went on to sign James Trafford from Manchester City for €17.3m on July 20th, who has since started every game under Kompany.

He hasn’t had the best start to the season, however, conceding 11 goals in his first three games, which is perhaps a bullet dodged for the Antwerp man, especially if this poor run of form continues at Turf Moor going forward.