Exclusive By CandH’s northern man Terry Robbins
Burnley are to hold crunch talks with James Tarkowski early next week which could finally see Irons given the green light to sign the England central defender.
Moysie has been tracking the 29-year-old Mancunian for a number of weeks but we have received mixed messages from his club over a sale during this window.Tarkowski’s deal is up this summer but Burnley are deep in relegation trouble and unsure whether to cash in.
However, have been told that Clarets chairman Alan Pace will meet with the player in the coming days to lay cards on the table.
It’s understood Burnley has an offer on the table of £8.25m from an unnamed Premier League club and know falling through the relegation trapdoor in May will cost them much more than that.
Pace, though, is extremely sympathetic to Tarkowski’s situation, knowing Irons have their sights trained on him as a potential replacement for Ogbonna, out for the rest of this season with a cruciate knee ligament injury.
Burnley’s owners are not planning to splash the cash this month and boss Sean Dyche will accept whatever decision is now made on Tarkowski during the next week.
My source told me: “Burnley know James will remain loyal to the club if he is told he must stay until the summer, but there has been an injection of pragmatism since Christmas.
“The best part of £10m is a lot of money to a club like Burnley and they know it won’t be coming around again for the player.
“The manager has plenty of faith in the squad but he knows it is a difficult situation for everyone on both sides of the Tarkowski discussions.”
Will be interesting to see what Tarkowski’s wage demands are, if, indeed, we are the unnamed Premier League club. If Moyes can get hold of him at £8m to £10m, it will be another good piece of business for an experienced EPL player. Unfortunately, it will be another reminder, along with the Dawson signing, of what a poor value for money signing Diop has been so far.