BURNLEY manager Steve Cotterill fears the club face a battle to keep teenage sensation John Cofie.

The Clarets boss had hoped the 14-year-old schoolboy would eventually progress through the ranks to first team level, following in the footsteps of Chris McCann and Kyle Lafferty.

But Burnley look set to lose promising striker Cofie to a Premier League club.

Manchester United and Chelsea were last month linked with the youngster, who was spotted by Burnley at a youth tournament in Germany last year.

A deal is reported to be worth £1 million.

But other top flight clubs have been tracking Cofie, a pupil at Moorland School in Clitheroe, and Cotterill believes one might come up with an offer that will prove to be too attractive for the life-long Liverpool fan to turn down.

"There's nothing happening at this moment in time, but no doubt there will be," he said.

"There's not been any new developments, but there probably will be."

And Cotterill fears those developments will involve Cofie leaving Turf Moor.

"Probably, no doubt that will happen," he continued.

"The bottom line is there's an agent that has been working to get him out.

"I'm disappointed with the whole thing, majorly, but I don't want to say anything on it at the moment, I think I need to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself."