Football Corner

Manchester United have agreed an undisclosed fee for 14-year old Burnley striker John Cofie. The player who has been linked with Chelsea and Liverpool in recent days refused to turn up for training with Burnley because of the clubs desicion to reject a £250,000 bid from Liverpool last week but the club have now granted him his wish to join one of the top 4 Premier League sides.

Burnley have inserted a 25% sell-on clause in the deal, which also gives them first refusal on any loan deal and an option of a future friendly match with United. It will be three years before Cofie can sign professional terms at Old Trafford and the friendly game will take place within 12 months of that.

"The player was unwilling to come back to Burnley so we didn't have a choice in keeping him here," Burnley operational director Brendan Flood told his club's website. "He was going to go to one of the clubs chasing his signature and in the end, we all felt that Manchester United was the right option."He has a good future ahead of him and hopefully we can try and keep youngsters of John's quality at the club in future."

The German born Ghanaian has been the centre of a lot of talk during the week and it is amazing to think that Liverpool had a quater of a million pound bid rejected for a 14-year old. He obviously must have a lot of talent and it will be interesting to see how he develops at the Red Devils.