Burke’s ready to roar
WEST BROM winger Oliver Burke says he’s ready to show the form that once saw him billed as the next Gareth Bale.
The 21-year-old Scot has failed to make a big splash despite two money-spinning moves.
But he scored his first-ever goal for the Baggies in the 1-0 Carabao Cup victory over Luton on Wednesday and says he can’t wait for more.
Burke drew comparisons with Real Madrid star Bale when Bundesliga outfit Liepzig forked out £13m for him after only a handful of appearances for Nottingham Forest.
Tony Pulis then forked out £15m to bring him back a year ago and, two scenes. I put the offer in and Barcelona asked for a totally different amount that we would never have paid.
“Then they said: ‘Okay, we will wait until the end of the market’. We never changed our offer.
“That was a bit of gamble because everyone who was writing about Man United and Barcelona used that, agents used that, everyone used it.
“I don’t know exactly if Manchester United were in. The player said constantly to me: ‘I want to go to Everton’.
“I don’t know exactly the situation with Manchester United but of course Barcelona used it.
“They said to me: ‘Manchester United are coming in’. I don’t know if they did but I took a bit of a risk with that.”
Barca inserted a £54m buy-back clause into the contract with Everton.
Brands also admits Everton paid over the odds for £40m Brazilian striker Richarlison.
But he insists they had to due to the bad blood with Watford over their approach for boss Marco Silva last season.
Richarlison scored twice on his debut against Wolves at the weekend but Brands said: “I think with the situation with Watford, we had to pay a little bit more.
“I think maybe the market value was a little bit lower but, at the end, we are happy with him.
“We think he can be very special. There were targets and he was the profile that we were looking for.
“We thought it would be a very difficult one because of the history of the clubs.” managers later and after a long fight with a lingering hamstring injury, the Scotland under-21 captain feels he’s finally ready for blast-off.
Burke said: “It’s a massive confidence boost getting that goal. I feel ready, I feel fit and sharper. Hopefully I can push on and show everyone what I’m capable of.”
Burke believes a little bit of stability is just what the doctor ordered right now.
He added: “The swap and change of managers is not easy. That was only my third start at West Brom so I still have a lot of learning to do.”