Oliver Burke: What Went Wrong for "The Scottish Gareth Bale"

in 2016 Oliver Burke hit the headlines and garnered International attention when he became the most expensive Scottish player in history after controversial German club Arby liic shelled out 13 million for the 19 year-old often compared to Gareth Bale he was tipped by many to become a huge St over 7 years on and as we so often see in this game it hasn't really worked out for him with the benefit of hindsight we can pinpoint a few crucial decisions as being key to his downfall Oliver bark was born in Kade Scotland but brought up in milon mry England a place called Melton mry which is about 30 minutes from Nottingham at the age of eight he joined local Club mry Rovers he was with them for only a year before he was spotted by the eagle-eyed Scouts of noran forest here he was given the nickname twisty by teammate Tyler Walker when I came to the club he actually thought my name was Oliver Twist why didn't he ask me my name but he progressed very well at the set ground with the most rapid and striking developments being physically as he grew to over 6t and had a very Broad and muscular Bel by the age of 17 he was regarded by the coaches as one of their very best prospects his blistering pace and ability to beat Defenders being seen as extremely valuable by the start of the 145 season he was already playing with the under 21s Keen not to lose their brightest young Talent they offered him his first professional contract on 19th of September 2014 a delighted bark signed without hesitation it was a lot earlier than I was expecting it was a shock but I have worked very hard for this Forest has been a massive part of my life this is the best thing that ever happened to me unbeknown to him things were about to get even better as Just 4 days later he was handed his first team debut coming on in the 86th minute of The League Cup third round loss to Spurs he went back to playing for the Youth teams for the bulk of the Season though and he was a key man in helping the under 18s to reach the quarterfinals of the fa youth cup where Burke was once again thwarted by Tottenham a week or so afterwards and he made his League debut getting a 26-minute run out in a thrilling 4-4 draw against Blackpool he ended That season with a shortterm loan to Bradford in League 1 after signing a three-year contract extension in the summer the 1516 campaign was to be burk's breakout after spending the majority of the first half of the campaign in the under 21s he got handed a chance at the end of December brought on late in the second half against leads he had the chance to win the game in the 90th minute but hit the post instead 2 days later and he was rewarded with a start against Cardiff and he opened his account for forest and the scoring after only 9 Minutes motoring into space to receive the ball driving into the box and finishing ly with the outside of his right boot he scored on his next start in two games time a towering header against Bolton after this he would make 12 more appearances in the final 19 games of the season three of which were Starks bark caught the eye with his pace and athletic physique which allowed him to Shield the ball as his teammates caught up and hold his own in 50/50s but he was the most potent threat when his physical attributes were combined with his technical ones like his first touch flare and dribbling which made him a nightmare for Defenders as Not only was he willing to run at them but he was more than able and Damned hard to stop it wasn't just for his fans that he was impressing as in March 2016 Scotland boss Gordon's tracking called him out to the senior Squad making his debut at Hampton Park replacing Matt Richie in the 82nd minute of a friendly against Denmark dragen had this to say about the development of Hot Prospects we promote them as soon as they are good enough he's big enough and strong enough so bang here you go I'm not saying he's going to be as good as Gareth Bale but the similarities are there he's definitely got the potential to be as good as him however ever the young Winger was far from the finished article and had some frustrating shortcomings in his game his lack of awareness and selfishness led him to twist and turn himself into a corner rather than look up and find the PA which would allow promising attacks to continue like many white players at the start of their careers his end product could sometimes leave a lot to be desired with crosses or shots at goals simply failing to find the target sometimes his decision making also had room for improvement as he struggled to always choose the correct option nonetheless these are all things that consistent game time could fix and the arrival of French manager Philip montaner in the summer of 2016 saw that wish granted after a great pre-season in which he Ned three times in six matches he was handed a start for the first match of the 201617 campaign Burke repaid his new gaffer's Faith as he scored and had a huge role in the buildup of the winner in a 4-3 Thriller against Burton albian this was followed up by back-to-back our way losses to Brighton and brenford respectively the next match was another 4-3 Classic this time again against Wigan as Burke bagged a brilliant brace to ensure he was once again on The Winning Side he continued his stoning start to the season with arguably his best goal of the four a close range strike from a tight angle following an electric dribble against leads at this point Forest fans were desperate to see the transfer window closed and could only pray that the precocious and productive Scot was still on their books when it did as the buzz around the new GTH Bale was reaching fever Peak Liverpool Man United and Bayern Munich amongst others were all credited with an interest and it was was reported that West Brom had had A6 million bed rejected however in the last couple of days of the window Bundesliga new boys and most hated Club in Germany red bu leig came in with a reported 30 million bid and here we reached the first real decision point of Burke's story but this Choice belongs to Forest chairman haaz Al hawasi accepting the bed means the club Nets a handsome sum for a player who had not even completed a full season although he was in fine form there was no guarantee that he wouldn't fall off or even pick up a bad injury which could result in his value dropping considerably this was the safe option but if he rejected the offer he would gain the respect and admiration of the fans he would retain the most exciting talent in the championship who if he continued to score goals at the same rate throughout the season would see his value Skyrocket potentially to two or three times Li's bid not only that but such a potent player could even see them promoted to the Premier League in the end baz chose the easy option and accepted the bit the second decision was all barks to make would he stay at the the club which he had been at since the age of nine had developed him and had given him the platform to show off his electric talents would he give his all to help them achieve promotion and then decide on his next move with a full season of football under his belt or would he move to Germany with an ambitious new club with state-of-the-art facilities some of the best Minds in the game a philosophy of developing special young talents an exciting attacking brand of football and the chance to test himself in one of Europe's top five leagues and I don't want to be naive here probably a very handsome packet as well his choice was the same as Al hassawi and on the 28th of August 2016 he became the most expensive Scottish footballer ever seing a move to Arby lipic for £3 million on a 5-year contract this move indeed sparked Fury from the forest faithful who simply couldn't believe the lack of ambition shown by the owner in an interview with DW sport Burke explained his reasoning for choosing liic everything that I've been looking for I was going to visit Tottenham and stuff like that but I just said no because liic showed enough love and enough care and attention and little details people are lovely as well and the club look at the facilities it's like one of the best in the world you know like it's got everything you need I don't regret it one bit and I'm I'm happier than I've ever been John harson had this to say about the move the Premier League is the place to be I thought that was the next step for him who watches the German league I would rather see a young Scottish Talent like him playing in the Premier League personally I don't think that liip or the brendes lia was the wrong destination on the contrary it was an ambitious and brave move I feel that the timing was wrong and he would have been better off staying in England for at least another year he looked to be guaranteed regular first te minutes for forest and was in fine form the experience he would have got playing a whole season in the championship would have been invaluable anyway 7 days after becoming a record breaker he made his first start for Scotland playing 66 minutes of the 5-1 mauling of Malta in the World Cup qualifiers and 6 days after that he made his debut for his new club boss Ralph Hassen huttle threw him on with just 20 minutes to play with a score a n nil against Dortmund to a great reception from his new fans fed as the Scottish Gareth Bale he had an instant impact feeding Warner with a great through Ball but the Striker's angled shot was safe with just seconds left on the clock Burke picked up the ball just outside of the box and drove forward before unselfishly picking out fellow debutant Navi kaita with a perfect Low cross to slam it into the roof of the net and give liick an impressive Victory their first ever win in the Bundesliga a couple weeks later and he scored 5 minutes into his first start against col showcasing his Speed and Agility to latch on to a clever through ball he would feature in almost every game for livic That season but found starts very hard to come by making just five of them as he totaled only 670 minutes on the pitch the main reason for this is obvious Burke is very versatile and can play on the left wing the right wing or as a center forward in each of these positions there was real quality ahead of him in the pecking order Emil forsberg Marcel sabitzer teimo Warner and Yousef pson the other factors which led to to him being more on the fringes That season were hinted at by his manager and the coaches Ralph Hassen Hut said that Burke had an empty hard drive assing to refer to the players's unwillingness to track back director of football Ralph ranik appeared to cast aspersions on the footballing education he had received at Forest he's good on the ball for a player of that size and that Tempo where he still has to improve is tactically when do I have to do what our style of football is a little bit different from what he was used to England I feel as though here is more have to work for the team on and off the ball obviously those are things that nobody has told him in the past and he has to learn that he has improved but there is still plenty of room for further Improvement and it was that room for improvement that made him one of the most exciting prospects in the Bundesliga leig had exceeded all expectations in their debut Bundesliga campaign finishing second and securing Champions League football bark looks at to continue his footballing education and development against the best players in the world however after captaining Scotland's under 20s to a third place finish in the two long tournament which included an historic victory over Brazil he was faced with his next major career decision Premier League club West brish albian had come in with a bed for him which had been accepted by liic Wy choose to stay at rbl where he was playing alongside some of the best youngsters on the planet and he was undoubtedly improving all the time due to the meticulous and Cutting Edge training and high level coaches there was also the potential promise of the glory Splendor and spectacle of the Champions League however he would have a major fight on his hands to become a regular starter and would most likely continue to be used as an impact sub or would he find The Lure of the Premier League the West Medlin and Tony pulis irresistible undoubtedly he was promised regular first team minutes and as he would be playing in the richest league on the earth his renumeration would receive another healthy bump Oliver Burke made a bizarre and in my opinion the wrong decision and accepted the offer from West Brom on the 25th of August 2017 he broke his own record and again became the costliest Scottish player ever moving to the Premier League for 50 million on a 5-year contract in an interview with Sky Sports he made his own motivations clear the more you're playing the more confident you are and when I was at RB Lish I wasn't playing so much I was coming on for the last 10 20 minutes and the game's already kind of gone there you kind of feel a bit 5050 about yourself and not so confident hopefully I get many games under my belt and moving to West bromage is obviously going to help me and um I think toy pish Believes In Me a lot and while I do understand that starts are important I feel he had the wrong attitude to being used as a sub 20 minutes is still long enough to impact the game and impress the gaffer if you have the right mentality I feel he should have showed a bit more grit and determination and stayed at lii if he had got his head down and listened and improved he may have been able to nail down a starting birth and in my opinion if there was any club which could have turned Oli bark into the player he was tipped to be it was Red Bull leig regardless whatever promises bark was made in relation to game time quickly turned to dust a hamstring injury held him back in the first couple of months under Tony pulish the man who had brought him to the Haw forns pulish was sacked on the 20th of November following in AB bismal start to the season and none of the three managers who proceeded him could find room for the limited footballing intelligence of Oliver bark in their plans as he was reduced to a handful of largely unconvincing appearances a poultry two of which were starts totaling just 356 Premier League minutes racking up only two assists as West Brom were relegated to the championship even in the second TI of English football new boss Daren M was unable or unwilling to accommodate Burke as he accumulated am measly 48 minutes of championship game time on the 5th of January he was shipped up to Scotland on a half season loan to Celtic while Celtic fans were intrigued and reasonably optimistic many questioned the sense of bringing another wide player into a squad which had a surplus of Wingers most notably a James Forest who was in some of the best form of his life tearing it up on the right wing now it seems clear to me that the intention was always to play Burke as a striker and provide cover for the injury plate Edward and the unavailable League Griffiths Rogers was apparently relishing the chance of being the manager who was finally able to unleash the potential of the Scottish baale saying this about the 22-year-old Loney he's nowhere near the finished article but he has so many attributes and strengths I love working with that kind of player to see if I can extract that bit more later Rogers would talk more about converting Burke into a center forward and I think that that that Oliver is equally as comfortable playing up front as he would be wide I think the difference when he when he's played up front you need to coach him in that and uh and you need to develop him and and you need to you know people will say we'll put an arm around him but it's a bit more than that you know you got to help him on the field you got to sit down and go through like we've done analyzing his game but he has all the all the tools to be an outstanding uh front player bark enjoyed an energetic start to a Celtic career and was full of pace purpose and for the first real time in his career consistent end product as he scored four and assisted two in his first nine domestic fixtures as Rogers pit project of turning Burke into a fully programmed clinical Center forward looked like it might just work clearly it would need time though as his shortcomings in front of go were brutally exposed when the quality of opposition took a big step up in the Europa League against Valencia where Burke looked rather lost in that false nine rle nonetheless Rogers really got OE and it finally looked like big Brendan was going to be the manager to crack the code and bring out the very best of burk but then unfortunately for pretty much everyone involved Ren Rogers did a bunk to Leicester a huge welcome to Leicester City Football Club how does it feel to be here well it feels great leaving up to Neil Lenin to try and see the season out successfully naturally Lenin's Focus was on winning the league and cup not on trying to rigorously drill and develop a low knee and players like James forest and odson Edward were the best options to achieve those goals so bark was more or less shunted to the sidelines he wasn't even named in the squad for the semis or the final of the Scottish cup Celtic won the trible treble That season so Burke got his hands on the first and so far only Sil aware of his career Upon returning to West Brom sporting director Luke Dowling hit out at how bark had been handled by Lenin once Brendan left to go to Leicester the treatment he got from the manager in place well subsequently we do not expect any of our players to go anywhere near Celtic Football Club his time at Celtic had at least put him back in contention for the national team and he was involved in their Euro qualifiers even scoring a big goal against Cypress his first and only for Scotland West Brom however wanted nothing to do with him and sent him off on another loan for the 1920 season this time the deportivo alz in La Liga here he was actually given a fair crack of the whip to show what he was all about as he made 31 appearances of which 14 were starts but he flattered to deceive and the same old complaints reared their head again poor positioning no tactical sense less than Sterling work rate and a terribly low output for an attacker just one goal and two assists he then joined shff United in a swap deal for Callum Robinson manager Chris Wilder was another one who thought the center forward would be the position which would get the best out of bark it wasn't he scored just once in 25 League appearances granted that strike was a famous winner against Manchester United at Old Trafford undoubtedly the highlight of his time at Bram Lane may be the only high point he had there perhaps the most damning indictment of that season for bark was that all the 13 starts he made he did not complete the full 90 once with wilder usually hooking him at around the hour mark as he proved to be Toothless and impotent against the quality of the Premiership defenses all too often Burke once again experienced relegation that year then he made just three Championship appearances for Sheffield United in the 2122 campaign before he got injured he was sent on loan to mwall in January where injury hampered him again after recovering he contributed somewhat to mil Wall's late surge up the table with two goals and one assist in his last eight games as the Lions finished ninth he then made a short return to the Bundesliga as ver Breman scooped him up in June 2022 reportedly for free despite the fact he wasn't at the end of a Sheffield United contract with the blades apparently desperate to be shot of him he made a stunning start to life back in the Bundesliga as he scored a dramatic late equalizer after only being brought on in the 84th minute against stutgart in his second match the very next game and he was at it again playing the role of Super Sub to complete an astonishing late comeback as his team scored three goals in six stupendous minutes to knock ad days Dortmund for six and when the game 32 Al of a back for ver brayman was an ending after that he was used almost exclusively Off the Bench but failed to have the same impact providing just one assist in the next 12 games he returned to mwall on another loan and just like at ver Breman he started brightly with a goal and an assist in his first four matches before falling off massively this season he's on yet another loan again in the championship this time with Birmingham city who have plunged themselves into a self-created Wayne Rooney shaped crisis burk's form hasn't helped as he has contributed precisely zel in terms of goals or assists and is the frequent Target of the ey of the fans many of whom can't understand how he keeps getting picked and wish he had followed Rooney out the door bark turns 27 this year and we are far past the point where he can be considered a project player that project should have been long since completed a couple of hasty and poor choices right at the start of his career driven perhaps by the impatience of Youth have led to the substandard player we see today who has so much athleticism and raw talent but is shockingly lacking in so many key areas so much time and money has been wasted on trying to turn bark into the player that he could have been judging on his notam Forest form but when such a long list of decent coaches have failed to do so you have to start asking the question who is the problem his former West Brom teammate Joe warl explained B's issues very well in an interview with the athletic I tell him all the time that I wish I had his ability I would be one of the best in the world if I had that it's not that he doesn't care but is about doing everything correctly on and off the pitch to give yourself the best chance I've seen loads of players like that players who make me wish I could get in their heads for half an hour you just want to show them that if they work just a little bit harder if they do the extra hours they could be so much more than they are another comment you will see being made over and over again by the fans of the many clubs he has been at on social media posts is that he is simply a speedboat without a driver

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Length: 19min 22sec (1162 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024