Selling These Two Players In Recent Times Was A Blunder By Burnley
Burnley are set to finish the season with their Premier League status intact. The Clarets were largely tipped for a drop back to the EFL Championship at the beginning of the campaign, but they have managed to survive against all odds.
Sean Dyche’s men currently sit 14th in the league standings, with 39 points from 35 games – 7 points above the relegation zone. With their stay in the top division all but confirmed, planning and plotting for the upcoming summer transfer window will be going on in a full-fledged manner.
While they may have managed to survive the threat of relegation, it is unlikely that Burnley will be able to hold on to two of their best players who are currently in high demand in the Premier League. Michael Keane has done brilliantly this season and has attracted interests from all the top clubs, while striker Andre Gray is a target for top teams as well.
With rumours going around, we take a look at two players who Burnley should never have sold in the recent past:
Charlie Austin
Signed in the winter window of 2011 from Swindon Town, Turf Moor is where Charlie Austin really broke on to the scenes in English football.
He had a difficult start after his arrival, but in his first full season with the club in 2012-13, Austin went on to score 16 goals in the Championship, becoming the competition’s leading goal-scorer. Another fruitful season in the subsequent year saw him score 28 goals. This established him as a star in the making. However, he joined Queens Park Rangers in the summer of 2013. Burnley were forced to sell the player after he had made 90 appearances for the club in which he had scored 45 goals.
Danny Ings
The Liverpool striker joined Burnley in the summer of 2011 from Bournemouth for an undisclosed fee but had to wait for quite a while – as long as eight months, to make his full debut for the club.
However, with the sale of Jay Rodriguez to Southampton the following season, he began as a first-choice striker. Injuries did not allow him to flourish as much as he would have liked to, finishing his first 2 seasons with just 6 goals. Following the departure of Charlie Austin to QPR in the subsequent summer, he came into his own, scoring 26 goals from 45 games as he fired Burnley to the Premier League. He followed it up with another decent debut campaign in the top-flight, scoring 11 times before moving to Liverpool in the summer of 2015, where injuries have once again stalled his progress.
Dubbed as one of the brightest English strikers, Ings left Turf Moor with 43 goals from 130 games. How Sean Dyche would have loved to have the 24-year old still in his ranks!
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