As far as transfer sagas go the “will he?”, “won’t he?”, Fashion Sakala to Burnley rumour is one that has been put to bed almost as quickly as it emerged.
Writing in The Athletic, Rangers and Scotland correspondent Jordan Campbell has revealed the extent of the Championship side’s interest and what the future holds for the Zambian international:
“Burnley have moved on from their interest in Rangers forward Fashion Sakala with the Zambian to remain part of Van Bronckhorst’s squad. They enquired about him, along with several other players, but no discussion followed as Rangers’ stance was clear.
“Burnley understood to have been willing to pay between £2-4m for Sakala but now signing Tella instead. Would take something huge to alter Rangers’ plans for the squad this season. Katic & Kelly likely to leave but everyone else will play a role.”
As already written – at great length – by Vital Rangers, Sakala is a player who deserves more game time but also more respect. His goal contribution record per minute is as good as any player in the Rangers squad and we should accept that he isn’t the greatest technical player but can still play his part.
The problem, as Campbell has written about in the past, is that he still needs to fine tune his game out of possession and his decision making when he has the ball – his pace and determination gets him into a lot of good positions it’s just that he doesn’t quite execute his plan effectively on occasion.
He’s far from perfect but it looks as though Sakala is here to stay, however, if he had a struggle to get regular starts last season, it will be even tougher this time out.