Liam Delap’s Ipswich Town success provides Burnley FC huge transfer regret | OneFootball

Burnley failed to use the Vincent Kompany factor to sign Liam Delap from Manchester City

There aren't a great number of transfer regrets Burnley can have from the Vincent Kompany days, as most of the players he signed went on to be sold on for a healthy profit, but Liam Delap looks like the one that got away.

Although the Clarets were never linked to Delap in a concrete nature, the links Kompany had to Manchester City meant that the young striker was continually thought to be making the move to Turf Moor.

Kompany did raid his former employers on several occasions throughout his Turf Moor stay, signing Arijanet Muric, CJ Egan-Riley, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and James Trafford from Pep Guardiola's side, with each of those bringing differing success.

Egan-Riley has now established himself as one of the best centre backs in the Championship, Harwood-Bellis never made his loan move permanent, Muric left for Ipswich having been a bit-part Premier League player and Trafford still flatters to deceive.

But the one Manchester City academy graduate who really did slip through their fingers is Delap, who is now proving he's cut out to play at the very top level.

Liam Delap's Ipswich Town form will be making Burnley squirm

With eight Premier League goals to his name already this term, Delap is on course to net more goals in a single league campaign than he ever did in the Championship, so his recent development has been stratospheric.

The 22/23 season, when Burnley won the Championship, saw Delap net just four goals whilst on loan at Preston and Stoke, so back then the Clarets board were probably glad they put their faith in Lyle Foster rather than the City academy graduate, but they were left with egg on their face.

With Kompany at the helm, Burnley had the perfect chance to sign the then-Manchester City man, who had proved he was prolific beforehand at Premier League 2 level, scoring an unheard of 32 goals in his last 30 appearances at that level.

Evidently, Burnley felt he wasn't at the required level to transfer that form into second tier football, and while the two seasons prior would support that theory, his success at Ipswich now disproves that.

At the time Burnley could've signed Delap, he was only 19 years of age, with bags of room for development, something which Ipswich Town are now reaping the benefits of after his £20m summer move.

Burnley can't make the same mistake this month

Allowing Delap to slip through his fingers is sure to be one of Alan Pace's biggest regrets as Burnley chairman, and on the evidence of this season, he passed up the opportunity to bring in a striker who ultimately had Premier League ability.

That's something he's in the market for this January too, in case Burnley go on to get promoted this season, so he can ill-afford to make the same mistake twice.

Every promotion challenger will be looking to find the next Delap, and without the Kompany factor anymore to bring in players of that calibre, Burnley will have to take a different approach to recruitment.

Spurred on by missing out on what could've been a huge deal for the club though, Clarets fans will hope January brings around some renewed success in the market.