A CLARETS fan was so sure his beloved team would not sign record buy Steven Defour he promised to tattoo his name and number on his leg if they did.

And now Sam Pritchard, 25, has a permanent reminder of his ill-advised punditry inked on his left calf.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Season ticket holder Sam, who lives just up the road from Turf Moor in Brunshaw, heard the speculation about Burnley FC’s interest in the Belgian international but then saw various journalists saying the deal would not go ahead.

On August 11, Sam tweeted: “If Burnley sign Defour, I’ll get his name and squad number tattooed on my leg.

“Never gunna happen from what I can read into.”

Just three days later the former Anderlecht midfielder signed a contract with Burnley after the club agreed a club-record £8m fee.

Red faced Sam’s message was retweeted by Clarets fans and he was left facing an appointment with a tattooist.

Sam, a maintenance engineer with Hycrome Europe Ltd in Burnley, said: “I think Defour’s a great player and am so happy he’s signed but I’d seen a couple of things saying he wouldn’t.

“Loads of people had seen me tweet it so I had to go ahead with the tattoo.

“When I phoned Inky’s on Standish Street, where I previously had my arm tattooed, the first thing they said was ‘we’ve been expecting your call’.

“So I had it done last Friday.”

Sam’s new body art made it’s debut at Turf Moor, as well as Steven Defour, in the 2-0 win over Liverpool.

Sam said: “A stranger came up to me saying ‘you’re the lad with the tattoo’ and there was a fair amount of banter from my mates.

“I wore skinny jeans to the match though so I wasn’t able to show it off.

“I’ve tagged Steven in some tweets about it and his girlfriend has ‘liked’ it so I reckon he’s seen it.”