OLI BURKE, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Celtic, has this evening left West Brom to head to Spain for a season long loan with Spanish side Alaves.
The £15million signing from RB Leipzig has failed to make an impression at the Championship side since returning at the end of the season.
West Brom confirmed the move this evening their official website. The 22-year-old Scottish international has taken up the opportunity to claim more first-team football after missing out on a regular spot in the Baggies’ SkyBet Championship plans so far this season.
Burke left to join up with his new team, currently placed seventh in the Spanish top flight, today.
Head Coach Slaven Bilić said: “He needs minutes. The situation is like Sam Field and Jonathan Leko. It would be much easier to say ‘stay here’ to cover ourselves, but then it’s a bit too selfish.
“What I told him is that I expect him, and it’s the same for Jonathan and Sam, to go and pick up the minutes, play week-in, week-out and then come back and play here.”
Burke returned to West Brom after falling out of favour with manager Neil Lennon, along it has to be said with the other loanees brought in last season by Brendan Rodgers. Lennon did give Burke a start at Ibrox in the last Glasgow Derby in May after the league title had been secured. But Burke had a shocker as the Rangers ran out comfortable 2-0 winners.
He returned to his parent club in June 2019, with WBA complaining of his treatment from Neil Lennon as he didn’t play Burke much. Statistics showed though that Burke played more minutes under Lennon than Rodgers, and 19 matches for Celtic was more than he had played in for the two seasons prior to arriving at Celtic.
It was not Celtic’s responsibility to promote Burke and it was really just deflection tactics from WBA. He has the ability to develop into a fine player but the transfer valuations have been a burden. He had much to work on, and success for him will translate well for the national side too. The market had inflated prices and it wasn’t all helpful.
“We sent Oli to Celtic in good faith with Brendan Rodgers and Lee Congleton some really good people up there that wanted to take Olly and wanted to play him. They wanted to make him a better player than he currently is. “Once Brendan left to go to Leicester the treatment he got from the manager that’s in place now is something we don’t expect for one of our players.
“He won’t be going anywhere near Celtic FC. We currently have a new manager that’s excited to start working and looking at Oli.
“They know what’s gone on and Oli certainly knows what’s gone on. It’s just something we’re not happy with at all,” Luke Dowling West Brom’s Director of Football said back in June.
Here is what Celtic said in response.
It turned out that despite their moans and groans, Celtic gave Burke more game-time than West Brom were prepared to. It is increasingly looking like their £15million ‘investment’ in the Scotland winger come striker is money that they’ll be unlikely to see again.
???? ¿En serio pensabais que iba a ser un viernes cualquiera? ????
✅ OFICIAL: @OliverBurke55 llega cedido al Deportivo Alavés ????
???? https://t.co/7MYwOG0gdp pic.twitter.com/43cbC92eWt
— Deportivo Alavés (@Alaves) August 30, 2019
Also on The Celtic Star…
Elyounoussi ‘Can’t Wait To Get Started’ as Celtic Confirm Signing…see HERE.
Celtic to sign Norwegian International as Lennon looks to loan market…see HERE.
