Football League World
·18 August 2024
"Looked lost and hopeless" - Burnley playmaker dubbed one of Clarets' biggest transfer flops
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Football League World
·18 August 2024
FLW's Burnley fan pundit discussed some of the club's less successful moves in the transfer market
This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
It's fair to say that Mike Tresor's time at Burnley has been a bit of a disaster so far, and his eight-figure move from Genk has not proved good value for money.
Belgian international Tresor was signed by Vincent Kompany last summer, initially on loan, but he completed a deal to make his Turf Moor stay permanent thanks to an obligation to buy at the end of last season, costing Burnley a whopping £15.4 million for a player that started just four Premier League matches.
It's fair to say that after his underwhelming loan spell, a permanent move for Tresor was the last thing that Burnley would have wanted, particularly after relegation from the Premier League, but the 25-year-old is now set to be a Clarets' player until the summer of 2028, according Transfermarkt.
FLW's Burnley fan pundit, Nathan Rogers, has pinpointed Tresor's signing as one of the poorest bits of business his club have done in recent history.
Speaking to Football League World, Nathan said: "The transfer that comes to mind that we got massively wrong was Mike Tresor, the Belgian winger. Kompany brought him in. I think we paid about £15 million.
“From minute one he just looked lost and hopeless on the pitch. He didn’t really have any confidence on the ball, felt like a complete shell of a player compared to how he looked in Belgium, and we just never saw him play.
“He barely got any minutes and was never used in any capacity and this summer he’s not reported back to training, whether that’s through illness or injury.
"In recent memory he’ll go down as one of the biggest wastes of money we’ve done, because £15 million is a lot of money for a player who isn’t getting any minutes, so for me Mike Tresor is going down as Burnley’s biggest transfer flop."
Tresor made 19 appearances in his first season at Turf Moor, with just three of those being Premier League starts, and he failed to register a goal or an assist, a shocking return for someone who was worth £15.4million.
This is a far cry from his 2022/23 season in the Belgian Pro League with Genk, where he scored eight times and registered a huge 24 assists, and he seriously struggled to make the step-up from Belgian football to the Premier League.
Tresor's future at Burnley looks far from certain, despite signing a long-term permanent deal with the club, and it remains to be seen whether he'll feature in Scott Parker's plans this season.
The 25-year-old has shown what he's capable of in the past in the Belgian league, and he could become a good asset to have in the Championship, but you'd have thought that the Clarets would favour an exit for the winger this summer.