Football: Phoenix admit interest in Burns

Nathan Burns is on Asian Cup duty for Australia. Photo / Getty Images

Wellington Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick admits the club has received advances from a Chinese team about Nathan Burns but has hosed down some of the speculation surrounding any potential move.

Burns, the A-League's golden boot leader with 10 goals in 12 games this season, has been in contact with Merrick recently and a resolution could come within the next few days.

"We have been dealing with a club from China, there's no doubt about that," Merrrick said. "There's a team interested but I won't go in to the detail of it."

Reports from Australia in Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph said Burns was being offered a salary of around A$2.5 million per season from Shanghai Shenhua, while SBS website The World Game suggested the Phoenix were holding out for a seven-figure transfer sum for the 26-year-old striker.

Agent Ante Alilovic had also worked his way in to the picture as, reportedly, being part of the negotiations but Merrick said a vast amount of what had been written was wrong.

"The inaccuracies are just quite incredible," Merrick said. "I've tried to find this agent, that guy mentioned, what's his name? Ante Alilovic. I've actually tried to phone him because if he's offering us $1.5-1.6 million US I'm taking it and we'll give him Nathan and we'll give him a couple of academy players for that and some steak knives as well. That is absolutely ridiculous that our club is holding out for $2.13 million."

What is clear is there is an offer on the table for Burns, although not in the ballpark of what has been reported, and the Phoenix will decide shortly whether they will sell him or not. He is in the first season of a two-year contract.

Merrick said they would weigh up what was best for the team, player and the club and insisted he always acted within the best interest of his players as they had released Jeremy Brockie recently who departed for South African club SuperSport United.

"The bottom line is that the board will look at an offer," Merrick said. "It's good that we are attracting offers and that we've got those sorts of players.

"I'm confident that we'll make the right decision, whatever that decision is and we've got a great bunch of players here."

Merrick said if they were to sell Burns it would be unlikely they would replace him and pointed to the fact they scored six goals in two games without him before the A-League went on hiatus due to the Asian Cup.

Burns, who moved to Wellington in a bid to reinvigorate his career, is in Brisbane with the Socceroos as they prepare for their Asian Cup quarter-final against China tonight.

The Phoenix are in second place on the A-League ladder and will return to action on February 2 when they play the Brisbane Roar across the Tasman.

Merrick confirmed that striker Roy Krishna was back to full fitness after being troubled by a hamstring niggle recently.

"We are pretty well ready to go," Merrick said.

Merrick spent part of the break in Samoa watching the Young All Whites at the OFC under-17 Championship and he said there were three or four Kiwi players who would be brought in to trial with the Phoenix in the future.