Burnley FC: Alan Pace should seek 2014 redo to aid Scott Parker in January | OneFootball

In desperate need of some attacking firepower, Burnley should be looking to pull of a repeat of this January 2014 deal in the coming weeks

In modern day football, £750,000 will barely cover some players' wages in a month, but back in 2014, it got Burnley arguably one of the greatest servants the club has ever had.

Burnley swooped in January 2014 to sign Ashley Barnes from Brighton for a fee believed to be around £750,000, which even back then was small fry, but today, is even smaller.

Naturally, repeating that feat in a financial sense is going to be impossible for Burnley in January, as signing anyone for under £1 milliojn in modern football is highly unlikely, but Barnes is they type of player who the Clarets are missing this season at the top end of the pitch.

Scott Parker's side are firmly in the thick of the promotion race, but despite what that might suggest, the squad not only lacks a goalscorer, but it also lacks some heart and character after its summer decimation.

Barnes brought all of those qualities in abundance, and for owner Alan Pace, who is under immense pressure to deliver in January, trying to bring in a replica of the target man in his prime should be top of the agenda.

While Barnes was fairly prolific for Burnley across both the Premier League and Championship, it's not just his goalscoring prowess Pace must look to replicate in January, it's the sort of character he was too - one which unites a dressing room.

Barnes was a well-respected member of the squad, and as a senior pro - which Burnley currently have very few of - he was someone who the squad could look up to, and his dressing room presence almost certainly helped the young squad of 2022/23 go on to win the league.

After the squad was decimated in the summer with a raft of departures, signing someone like Barnes who devoted almost 10 years of service would be huge for the squad, as there would be a constant figure within.

Right now, the two longest serving players at the club are Jay Rodriguez and Josh Brownhill, both of whom are out of contract in the summer, which means they'll leave behind a squad built of largely young inexperienced players.

That's something Burnley know all too well will blow up in their face if they happen to get promoted this summer, as they experienced that last season, so adding someone in the same mold of the Barnes signing would go a long way to at least bringing some continuity to the squad in a bid to avoid a fourth successive summer window of transition.

Barnes basked in some of Burnley's most successful seasons in modern history

When Barnes signed for the Clarets back in 2014, they were flying high near the Championship summit, but with a paper thin squad, many believed it was jsut a matter of time before they faded away.

But that they didn't, as Barnes helped them over the line amid injuries to star strikers Danny Ings and Sam Vokes, although he couldn't help keep them in the Premier League the season after and suffered a nasty injury on the final day which kept him out almost the entirety of the season after when Burnley bounced straight back.

From then on, Barnes was an integral part of a side who spent six successive seasons in the top-flight, and he played a key role in Burnley's 7th-place finish in 2017/18.

He went on to score in Europe for the club against Aberdeen and was something of a regular under Sean Dyche.

His shining moment that will write him in Burnley folklore forever though came in November 2022 when he headed home the Clarets' opener in an East Lancashire Derby before proceeding to bundle Rovers keeper Thomas Kaminski into the net too.

That proved to the the highest point in his final season at the club as he departed for Norwich after Burnley were promoted back to the Premier League.