£1m Eagles joins Clarets

July 29, 2008

MANCHESTERUnited winger Chris Eagles has joined Coca-Cola Championship club Burnley on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee believed to be in excess of £1million.

Eagles, 22, joined the Barclays Premier League champions at the age of 14 but has failed to establish himself as a regular part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s first-team plans.

And despite being prominent in United’s pre-season campaign, scoring against Kaizer Chiefs and Portsmouth on their tour of Africa, Eagles has finally called time on his Old Trafford career.

The Red Devils academy graduate, who enjoyed previous loan spells at Watford, Sheffield Wednesday and Dutch outfit NEC Nijmegen, becomes Burnley’s sixth summer signing.

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george (29/07/2008 at 17:35)

Piquet and Eagles exits at least allow other young players to see if they can break into the first team.

Frank Old Trafford (29/07/2008 at 17:45)

No surprise really and I hope it works out for him. very few people saw him with a future here.

Still you would have thought that one of United's pre-season top scorers would be worth a bit more.

In Spain, yeah I know pinch of salt, they're talking about Henry being our top target at 15 mill. I hope that there's nothing in it as he's been a flop in Spain and is over 30 and loves the arse.

Also they say that Villa is open to offers. He may not have the physical presence of Torres or Benzema but he's a better finisher than both and with Roo and Tev's conversion rate he'd be a brilliant signing.

GC Northstand (29/07/2008 at 17:46)

Good luck to the lad he has given it his best shot and must now go and make a living in the lower divisions with the target of working his way back to the premiership. He is agood pro who has clearly had something or SAF would have let him go earlier.

Deano58 (29/07/2008 at 17:51)

another of "Fergie's fledglings" to fly the nest !

Raven (29/07/2008 at 17:55)

Good luck in your future career.

manu xpert (29/07/2008 at 18:02)

good work fergie! now you must get rid of some of the other dead wood. i say simpson,o'shea,martin, and campbell.

Bill Wirral (29/07/2008 at 18:10)

Good luck to Chris. A good player but not good enough for United. Didn't have a particularly good tour bearing in mind that these games are purely for fitness etc. I wish him well at Burnley.

tooth&claw, manchester (29/07/2008 at 18:14)

It's a shame the way Eagles' career has gone. At 16 I thought that he looked a world beater. At 18 he was on the fringes of the team and played in the Carling Cup and then it just stalled. When he was a youngster I would have put money on him being an established England star by now; other commentators thought he'd be a future England captain. One Daily Express hack called him the future of English football. It just shows that some kids just don't progress even in the best environment in the world.

I wish him good luck with his career. I think a good run of first team games will see him ready to return to the premiership.

Red Afro Derby (29/07/2008 at 18:53)

I thought Eagles and Rodrigo stood greatest chances of breaking into the first team this season. We're in real danger of continuing this trend of producing promising youngsters who won't progress further than than the reserves. Naturally we should be concerned if Rodrigo does not make the bench in the first team throughout this season.

bobbyc, manchester (29/07/2008 at 19:20)

Wishing Eagles all the best .To be honest he was a decent player ,but not quite good enough to be a regular.He will do well for Burnley.

The Trawler, Stockport (29/07/2008 at 19:37)

tooth & claw - it's probably the same hack who thought Danny Cadamarteri and John Oster were 'the future of English football'. Eagles was never going to make it at United, but I'm surprised he's not had offers from Premiership sides.

stevi, france (29/07/2008 at 20:08)

At 22, if you haven't made the breakthrough then it isn't gonna happen....I wish him all the very best for the future.

Utd4Ever (29/07/2008 at 20:14)

The fact that he has not joined a PL side probably says it all. Decent player but ultimately not good enough although from what I saw of him, could have done a job in a mid to lower table PL team. Let's face it, Darren is Fletcher is about sixth choice in midfield at the moment, in fact based on performances on tour, Gibson may just nip in before him.

wayneold, manc (29/07/2008 at 20:23)

Good Luck to Eagles, he tried hard everygame but i suppose its hard to break into the best team in Europe! I wish him the best of luck, at least he learnt his trade at the best footy school around!

Jack Thorley Trafford, Trafford (29/07/2008 at 20:33)

It was very shrewed of Fergie to play so many of the players he is trying to get rid of during the South Africa tournament. Neither Eagles, Campbell and especially Martin are anywhere near Premiership standard's. The lower and non -leagues are littered with ex United players many of whom never even played for the reserve team.

red4ever (29/07/2008 at 21:07)

Goodbye Chris, wish you the very best. I enjoyed watching you play.

bobbyc, manchester (29/07/2008 at 22:12)

And Jack thorley, the leagues all over UK ,and elsewhere are littered with ex-city managers.Your" pearls of wisdom" yet again smack of hypocrisy,and hardly concealed bitterness.

tooth&claw, manchester (29/07/2008 at 22:20)

Trawler, you may be right about the hack but there was a sense of expectancy about Eagles from his Academy and early Reserve days. That's not just me, but the coaching staff, the England setup, SAF and, of course, the regular fans at Academy and Reserve games. He got an injury and missed a few weeks and returned a bit of a wuss.

Drifter, Mancunia (29/07/2008 at 22:42)

Good luck at Burnley Chris.

tooth&claw, manchester (29/07/2008 at 22:53)

Part of the responsibility of the academy, youth and reserve setups is to give players enough of a footballing eduction to earn a living from it. Most of our intake never reach the first team but most stay in football and earn a living. That cannot be said of many clubs.

Mathematics should show you that if you take in up to a dozen juniors on pro terms each season most won't make it into the first team. We do exceptionally well finding those who aren't up to our standards good jobs elsewhere.

AS, Ipswich (30/07/2008 at 00:04)

No question of him leaving as he was not good enough for United.However i am sad at the prices we got from selling players.
Fergie needs to review our reserve squad as we seem not to produce offensive players.I hope we could see more youngsters on the bench next season with 7 substitues permitted.

red4ever (30/07/2008 at 07:04)

Jack Thorley dont know what to think but the two most prized cups are in our trophy case.
Even I felt Eagles was a good player to have in reserve but I trust SAF to do what is right, the results speak for themselves.
Naturally any player for sale needs to be showcased, lets not forget that United is business enterprise too.
What is scary is SAF saying that if CR goes he does too. I hope the Glazers dont call SAF's bluff because I dont think its a bluff.
We are having to pay top dollar for Carlitos and hence some cash has to be raised.
To come back to your comments Campbell in my humble opinion is the genuine(I am temp allergic to the term REAL at the present)item. Martin I don't know much about.

Savant, Singapore (30/07/2008 at 07:12)

All the best to him as he embarks on this new phase of his career. He deserves our best wishes.

Was always promising, but just not good enough. Without regularly first team action, we will never know. So, the best would be to pursue his career somewhere else. Who knows, look at how playing for a lesser team can elevate the player in the case of David Bentley.

manc abroad, OT (30/07/2008 at 07:15)

This is an inditement of the acadamey. There is something wrong when the last three players to come through are Brown, O'Shea and Fletcher. Squad players, not guaranteed first teamers.

The Premiership is a lot stronger than when Giggs, Nevilles, Scholes, Butt and Beckham came into the team, but surely we should be producing better players.

Are there any academy players out there that we have released in the last few years that have made it at the top level ?

Look at West Hams academy and the players they have produced who are playing top level football in the Premiership.

edinburgh red, edinburgh (30/07/2008 at 09:16)

Best of luck too him, hopefully we have a buy on clause inserted in case he moves to a premiership club as we were well and truly robbed when forlan found form finally

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