STEVE Cotterill has spoken of his delight at the capture of Albanian international Besart Berisha after a month-long pursuit.

The 21-year-old Hamburg forward will complete his dream £340,000 move to Turf Moor once a work permit has been granted.

Cotterill, who hopes spec-ialist solicitors will be successful in securing Berisha's registration, has been relentless in his bid to snap up the skilful wide player after watching his impressive goal-scoring display for Albania against England B at Turf Moor earlier last month.

And the Burnley boss is excited by the prospect of the Kosovo-born star playing in claret and blue next season.

"He said from the first moment I spoke to him he wanted to come to Burnley," revealed Cotterill. "I think the England game has set the imagination for him.

"He said he was delighted to be joining Burnley and we've got an exciting young prospect.

"He's one of those lads I think that the fans will take to. I think they will feel connected to him, they will feel they partly own him and every Burnley fan in the stadium for the England game that night will have wanted us him to sign.

"I hope everything works out for us and for him. He is a good lad."

Cotterill added: "The first time I saw him was probably along with everyone else when he played against England.

"I've checked him out a few times since."

Cotterill nipped in to sign Berisha ahead of other interested English clubs, as well as two German teams that offered more money for his services.

Cotterill added: "He had a great game against England and he scored against Blackburn in pre-season last year.

"He wanted to come to England. Even when I was out there, I had him signed as calls were coming in from elsewhere.

"When I met him yesterday, he was full of excitement."

Cotterill is confident that Berisha will be granted a work permit to finalise his move to Britain.

Obtaining work permits for non-EU players has, however, proved a stumbling block in the recent past for Burnley.

During Cotterill's tenure, they missed out on Macedonian midfielder Artim Sakiri and Jamaican striker Luton Shelton after having appeals for work permits rejected by the Home Office.

But the Clarets have learned from those disappointments and, ahead of putting Berisha's case forward in front of a work permit panel, Cotterill revealed the club is better prepared than ever at achieving a successful application.

"What we will have to do now is go to a work permit panel," said Cotterill.

"We have put our application in and are now just waiting for a date to be finalised.

"I met with some solicitors, guys who are very up to date with procedures for work permits and they think we have a very good case.

"We are better and more professionally prepared with these situations than we have been, but having said that we did prepare before."

Almost two years ago, the Clarets were refused work permits when they tried to sign Shelton and Sakiri.

At the time, Cotterill wanted to take Shelton on loan from Jamaican top-flight outfit Harbour View following a promising spell on trial.

Shelton eventually signed for Swedish club Helsingborgs in August 2006 and was then able to complete a £1.85million move to Sheffield United in January this year.

Former West Brom midfielder Sakiri had agreed a 12-month deal before an appeal for a work permit was rejected.