Burnley’s confirmation of midfielder Michael Kightly’s release may well be of interest to Blues boss Mick McCarthy, who confirmed last month that he had shown interest in his former Wolves player last summer, as TWTD revealed at the time.
The Clarets formally announced the end of Kightly’s four-year spell at Turf Moor this morning, a move which had been widely expected with the 31-year-old having ended the season on loan at Burton after making only a handful of appearances for his parent club prior to his January switch.
Ahead of Town’s Easter game against the Brewers at the Pirelli Stadium, McCarthy cited Kightly as one of the signings of his career, having recruited him from then-Conference side Grays Athletic when manager of Wolves in November 2006, initially on loan before the deal was made permanent the following January.
The former England U21 international winger, who we understand was keen to join the Blues at the time of the interest last August, became an integral part of the Wolves side which carried off the Championship title in 2008/09 and won promotion to the Premier League.
"Kights, he’s a standout candidate for signing of a career I would say - £25,000 from Grays,” McCarthy reflected when speaking in April.
"He was outstanding, he really was. The two wingers we had at Wolves the time were brilliant, Matt Jarvis, who, of course, is at Norwich now, was sold for about 12 million quid and Kights was for a lot of money as well.
"Michael Kightly, the first day he came in and trained two or three lads said ‘Who the hell is that!’. He lit the place up.
"I’m glad to see he’s back playing [at Burton], he’s been missing a lot. I tried to sign him here for a while but it didn’t work and actually we took Tom Lawrence as well, so that’s been no hardship. But he’s been desperate to go out and play and he’s doing well now he is.”