It was a simple 48-second video of a footballer returning from his summer holiday for the first day of pre-season. But this wasn’t just anyone. This was Wout Weghorst coming back to Burnley for the first time in over 12 months.
In the first 24 hours, it amassed approximately four million social media views – a number no other Burnley player would come close to generating for the same type of video.
There was a smile, a new hair colour and a key question – what are you most looking forward to about being with his parent club again? Weghorst paused, pondered, took a deep breath in and then replied: “To be successful here at Burnley.”
Welcome back, Wout! 👋 pic.twitter.com/sxyWMSboCm
— Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) July 13, 2023
To say opinions were divided following his return, having spent last season out on loan, at first Besiktas in Turkey and then down the road at Manchester United from the middle of January onwards, would be an understatement.
That much was obvious on Saturday in the 2-0 friendly defeat at Genk in Belgium, when Weghorst was booed by a section of Burnley’s 250 travelling supporters after he came on as a second-half substitute. A small minority then continued to jeer his every touch. Others, we have to make clear, tried to drown them out with applause.
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It is hardly an ideal backdrop for a striker who has not played a competitive game for Burnley since the final day of the 2021-22 Premier League season, when relegation was confirmed with a 2-1 home defeat against Newcastle United.
Burnley are now back in the top flight, but Weghorst’s future remains uncertain.
Another move would appear the most likely but the market for him has yet to establish itself, with no concrete offers made. A return to Turkey is a possibility, while the latest club to be linked with him are Bayer Leverkusen, which would mean a return to Germany’s Bundesliga, where he spent three and a half seasons with Wolfsburg before a transfer to Turf Moor in late January last year. Permanent and loan offers will be considered but he is not being pushed out the door.
Links to Everton earlier in the summer were surprising. Sean Dyche, now in charge at Goodison Park, repeatedly praised Weghorst’s professionalism during the three months the pair worked together at Burnley, but his system did not suit the 22-cap Netherlands international. Everton’s struggles with financial fair play are also a factor, with Burnley hoping to recoup as much of the £12.5million they spent on Weghorst as possible.
His involvement with the team in Genk suggests there may still be a home for him at Turf Moor. He has been professional since his return, attempting to reintegrate himself, and he has had talks with manager Vincent Kompany, Dyche’s replacement.
One view is that the club can never have enough good strikers and the 6ft 6in (197cm) tall Dutchman could be another option alongside Lyle Foster, Michael Obafemi, Jay Rodriguez and new signing Zeki Amdouni.
It is, though, difficult to see how he begins to mend the bridges broken with supporters by his exit in 2022 and his subsequent revelation, made while on international duty that summer, that he had a verbal agreement with owner and chairman Alan Pace that if Burnley were relegated he would be allowed to leave.
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To some supporters, it felt like he was too eager to jump ship, although in reality, Weghorst was simply telling the truth. That agreement was, indeed, in place — Burnley having agreed to it as they desperately tried to fill the void left by then-relegation battle rivals Newcastle triggering fellow striker Chris Wood’s release clause earlier in that same winter window.
Weghorst was taking a big risk in joining a club positioned precariously in the drop zone, so the deal was struck, although there was some surprise at Turf Moor that it was made public.
When his loan to Besiktas was confirmed, an interview was released on club channels to allow him to set the record straight. His comments, he said, had been mistranslated and were not intended to be arrogant or disrespectful; it all revolved around his World Cup ambitions.
Playing and scoring in the Premier League would help him make the Dutch squad for Qatar 2022; playing in the Championship would not. Netherlands manager Louis van Gaal had spelt that out.
And in that sense, Weghorst will feel vindicated. Had he not left to play top-flight football in Istanbul, he would not have had his memorable moment — scoring twice after coming off the bench to send his country’s World Cup quarter-final with Argentina into extra time.
Burnley, and Pace, could not go back on their word, not least because of the consequences that could have been felt in future transfer dealings if/when it had got out.
They are keen to shed the reputation they earned in the latter years of the club’s previous ownership that players could find it difficult to leave for a sensible fee, and that promises could be broken. The new regime want to offer players a pathway to develop and earn moves to the game’s biggest clubs and did not stand in the way of those who wanted to stay in the Premier League last summer after Burnley’s relegation.
They went through the tough negotiations with Besiktas to cut his loan there short last January and make the Manchester United move happen for minimal financial gain to the club, sacrificing the potential transfer windfall they looked set to gain to help one of their players achieve his dream.
Weghorst’s Burnley journey was never meant to go this way.
Rewind almost 18 months and Weghorst arrived to huge fanfare on transfer deadline day. His goalscoring record with Wolfsburg (59 in 118 league appearances) was impressive and Burnley fans hoped he would be their saviour as the club’s six-year stay in the top division threatened to come to an end.
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His first four appearances saw him quickly achieve fan-favourite status. He turned Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay inside out as he assisted Jay Rodriguez in a 1-1 home draw with Manchester United in his second appearance, then scored his first Burnley goal in a 3-0 win at Brighton & Hove Albion just over a week later. His physical data, off-the-ball work and desire to learn and improve were all impressive.
But then it began to go wrong.
His influence waned, the system did not suit his strengths and he failed to score for the rest of Dyche’s reign. That ended in mid-April after a 2-0 defeat away to fellow relegation candidates Norwich City, where Weghorst cut a frustrated figure and was substituted on the hour mark.
He scored at West Ham in interim manager Mike Jackson’s first game in charge and provided a match-winning assist in his third at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers, but again his contribution then decreased. He did not hide his frustration at being substituted against Watford on April 30 and by the end of the campaign he had lost his place in the starting XI to Ashley Barnes.
His big moment to turn everything around came in the dying seconds against Aston Villa in the penultimate game of the season.
As the ball fell to him eight yards out with the goal gaping as ’keeper Emiliano Martinez was out of position, it was easier to score than miss. But the net didn’t bulge. Weghorst’s shot was blocked by Tyrone Mings. Two valuable points slipped away as the match ended 1-1 and, three days later, relegation was confirmed with that loss to Newcastle.
Besiktas agreed a season-long loan but throughout those negotiations senior Burnley sources, who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, insisted it was not a definitive goodbye. They still saw a future for the Dutchman, who turns 31 early next month, if they returned to the Premier League at the first attempt and that may yet prove to be the case.
That loan to Besiktas did work. By the time he left Istanbul, although in sour circumstances, Weghorst had become a fan favourite there, scoring nine goals and assisting four in 18 appearances. Besiktas were seriously considering triggering the £9million option-to-buy clause inserted in the deal.
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They never got the chance as Manchester United’s interest intensified and Weghorst made his intentions clear. But while he made a decent start to life at Old Trafford, his goalscoring touch continued to desert him in English football. After two goals in 20 games for Burnley, there were the same amount in 31 appearances for United, and neither of them came in the Premier League. He spent the final weeks of last season on the bench. Any hope of a permanent move was wishful thinking.
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Now he is back with Burnley, the question remains: what role could he have under Kompany?
The club’s personnel has significantly changed in the past year but some old faces do remain, including Connor Roberts, who publicly clashed with Weghorst in the wake of relegation.
The spark was Weghorst scoring a late winner against Roberts’ Wales side in the Nations League a couple of weeks after the Premier League season ended, prompting the defender to ask him: “Why didn’t you do that for Burnley?”. Weghorst was then seen telling Roberts to “shut up” as the pair confronted each other on the pitch in Cardiff.
Relationships will need to be mended. During that relegation run-in, Weghorst was not a happy boy around the training ground because of his own form. There were suggestions he clashed with team-mates, some of whom interpreted his self-confidence as arrogance.
On that first day back 11 days ago, he sat with midfielder Josh Brownhill for lunch in the canteen at the training ground, which may prove the first step on the road to rehabilitation.
Weghorst is seen as a quiet and relaxed character off the pitch but on it, he is ultra-competitive and not scared to share his thoughts with team-mates if he feels they are not pulling their weight. He studies his game closely. There are characteristics he possesses which suit Kompany’s system. He wants to drop into pockets and link play, which is what the manager demands of both his No 9 and No 10. His work rate and pressing also fit Kompany’s approach.
Burnley’s run of pre-season fixtures takes them from Belgium to Portugal to face Benfica next. Kompany is expected to rotate the majority, if not all, of the starting XI from the Genk game.
Weghorst’s involvement, or lack of it, in Lisbon tomorrow (Tuesday) may offer the biggest indication so far of where his future lies.
(Top photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)