Lukey Juke moving closer to Brum move
Tony Scholes November 23, 2016 Lukey Juke moving closer to Brum move2016-11-23T14:28:19+00:00
Lukas Jutkiewicz joined Birmingham City at the end of August in a loan deal until January having started the season being used as a substitute by Burnley in the Premier League.
Soon afterwards we learned that Birmingham had an agreement in place that could see them convert it into a permanent move if it was agreeable to all parties and it now looks as if that move is edging ever closer.
Blues' boss Gary Rowett has made no secret of the fact that he'd like to keep the striker who has already scored five times for them in the Championship in just twelve appearances, nine from the start and three as a substitute.
He's probably moving quickly given that there was apparent interest last week from Derby but he wouldn't give any details of a potential deal when he spoke yesterday to his club's website although the Birmingham Mail have rubbished suggestions of a £2 million fee, considerably more than we paid Middlesbrough for his services, and suggested it is closer to have that figure.
Rowett said: "I don't want to go into too much detail because that's not really fair on any other club. Any option is great but even if you agree an option and exercise it, you've still got to deal with the player and his representative.
"Of course, if there's interest from other clubs, then a player can do whatever they want. They can say 'I don't want to sign for you, I want to sign for someone else'. An option just gives us something in writing that we know that figure and it's not going to suddenly extend five times its value. Certainly some of the option figures bandied around (the suggestion of £2 million) are not right anyway."
Rowett said Juke had said he is open to the move but added: "I've had good conversations with Lukas. He's at a point in his career where he wants to settle down a little bit and wants to get that run of games that he's probably not had for a while and wants to be in the right environment where he thinks he can score goals. I've got to try and convince him that this is the right environment.
"He's enjoyed it but I don't think any player can commit 100% that they'll definitely sign for us because you don't know what's out there and what opportunities he might have. There might be a Premier League club come in, or Burnley might say 'you can come back into our team'.
"We don't know, but what I can say is he's open to those discussions and we've started that process now. We might as well see where we are in two weeks time, because if he turns around and says it's not going to happen then we need to look elsewhere.
"I've been really pleased with him. He's an intelligent lad and you can sit him in the office like I have done a couple of times and have a good discussion about where he sees us as a team and what we need to do to improve as well, because he's played at a team that's won promotion.
"I'm hopeful that he would see us as a good step in his career for his next move if that's what he decides to do. But he's a Burnley player and I'm grateful to Sean that they've let us have him on loan and if he helps us short term then fantastic. If we get an opportunity for him to help us long term then I would be really pleased, but only time with give us an answer to that."
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