PETER Taylor is delighted to see Ade Akinbiyi back in favour after seeing the Burnley striker suffer the Peter Crouch treatment at Leicester.

It was Hull City boss Taylor who splashed out £5million on Akinbiyi five years ago while in charge of Leicester during their Premiership years.

And Taylor, who saw Akinbiyi's spell at The Walkers Stadium turn sour after scoring just 13 times in 67 games, insisted: "You would always want Ade in your team and I'd buy him again tomorrow if I could!

"He's a tremendous professional and what Crouch is going through now (at Liverpool), in the stick he's getting from everywhere, is similar to what Ade had to put up with at Leicester.

"It was very unfair and it was because of the big price tag, which wasn't his fault. But he's come back eventually and got his confidence back and I'm delighted for him because he's a first class professional and a first class boy."

Clarets boss Cotterill paid £600,000 for Akinbiyi to lead the Clarets line in February and has been rewarded with 12 goals in 28 games.

And he insisted that Akinbiyi was simply a victim of market forces when strikers were at a premium.

He added: "At the time he cost Leicester £5m-plus, but prices were inflated then. People say Ade suffered from the price tag and maybe Peter did too, but the going rate is the going rate.

"But Peter wasn't the only one and Ade's gone for something like £12.75m in his career, so Peter and myself are not the only ones to have spent money on Ade."

"I've spoken to Peter about him since I've been at Burnley, and since we took him here, so I think Peter was a big fan of Ade.

"Most people are and if people get to know Ade Akinbiyi, you soon become a fan of his."