Besiktas-bound Wout Weghorst hasn't given up on a Burnley return

The Netherlands striker sealed a season-long loan move to the Turkish Superlig side on Tuesday, feeling he has to be playing top flight football in Europe to make the Netherlands squad for the World Cup in Qatar in November.

At the end of that stint in Besiktas, Weghorst would still have two years remaining on his Turf Moor contract, and he hasn’t ruled out pulling on a Claret and Blue shirt again, despite some disappointment in the manner of his departure.

He said, after scoring a late winner against Wales in Cardiff in the Nations League: “My future won’t be next year in Burnley.“I won’t go into the Championship - not that I feel too good for it, absolutely not. I am just really ambitious and also for the squad of the national team.

“The trainer wants us to play at a high level.”

After scoring, there was a coming together with Burnley teammate Connor Roberts, who appeared to ask the £12m deadline day signing: “Why don’t you do that for Burnley?”, to which Weghorst looked to reply along the lines of: “This is nothing to do with Burnley, shut up.”

But he insists, he could still play again for Burnley, after netting only twice in 20 appearances as the Clarets were relegated.

Speaking of his relationship with the fans, he said: “I think the connection was there, I felt it in the beginning and this was the reason for me to sit down and to speak, because I wanted to be open and honest.

“The Burnley fans made my whole dream, the Premier League dream I had, the club, especially the fans, made it special and beautiful, the moments we had and shared I always kept in my mind, and will always have a place in my heart.

“It’s not that I’m feeling too good for the Championship or don’t want to play in the Championship for Burnley, there are some reasons for it, and I spoke with the club before I came, we had our vision and our thoughts, and I hope there could be a return from my side and we could have more positive and successful moments together.

“I’m looking forward to that moment.”

And he explained why he had to make the move he did: “I’m really thankful for last year, that’s definitely something I wanted to say to the fans.

“There were some tough weeks after the relegation, and also for me to get everything straight, so it turns out really quickly again, I had an interview over there (on international duty), it’s translated and it’s not totally right, you know how the media can work sometimes.

“For me, it was really important to speak to the fans and the club.

“Of course I had my thoughts about it, before I moved to Burnley, of course we spoke about it, the World Cup is coming up now, and it’s just a really important thing for me, it’s my biggest dream, it’s the highest and biggest you can achieve as a professional football player.

“The trainer has clear thoughts about playing on the highest level, he’s really strict about it, so if I want to be there, I had to make the decision.”