Home » English Premier League » With This Young Attacking Duo, Burnley’s Future Looks Promising More Than Ever – Agreed?

With This Young Attacking Duo, Burnley’s Future Looks Promising More Than Ever – Agreed?

Burnley FC

Burnley are making serious progress under Sean Dyche. The Clarets made it to the Premier League back in 2009-10 season, only to be relegated. They endured a similar fate in the 2014-15 season as well under Dyche. But this time around, after having won the Championship in the 2015-16 season they returned to the Premier League this season and now look set for another campaign in the top division.

Burnley find themselves at 13th position in the league right now and are some distance away from the relegation zone. The club have a set of really hard-working players who wear their hearts on their sleeves and give it their all on the field for their manager.

While they have a well-drilled first team squad, there are some talented youngsters coming through the youth ranks for the Clarets who are tipped for great things.

Two such players are; 19-year old winger Dan Agyei and 18-year old central midfielder Aiden O’Neill.

Dyche, recently speaking about the two youngsters, sang praises in plenty. He said:

“It was a big part of a few years ago when I spoke about the bigger picture of the club and how I was hoping it would move forward.

“It’s a tiny thing but even with the design of the building and the pitches, all of those little aspirational things add to the path of a young player. It’s seeing a young player in the building who moves up the ladder to get in and around the first team.

“It shows there is a way, it shows there is life in doing that, but they have to be good enough. We do it authentically and Dan Agyei, I think, is someone who should definitely be around our first-team squad.

“Same with Aiden but he did it the other way around, he was with us early season but has now gone out on loan.

“They are two amongst a number who are just showing signs over the last six months to a year of progressing.”

Dyche is spot on with his assessment of two of the brightest young talents that are coming through the ranks at the Turf Moor.

Agyei is a product of AFC Wimbledon who joined Burnley in the summer of 2015. Having impressed heavily with the Burnley development squad he made his senior debut in a friendly against Bradford City in the 2016-17 pre-season, post which Dyche shipped him out on loan to League One side Coventry City.

Dan Agyei

Agyei performed well at Coventry, notching up 5 goals and 2 assists in 20 appearances in the league and the EFL trophy combined. Convinced that he is ready to make the step up, Burnley recalled him from loan and handed him his Premier League debut in the 2-1 loss against Liverpool not so long ago, when he came off the bench at Anfield for just over a minute.

An explosive forward, who can play through the middle or the wings, Agyei possesses some serious pace and has shown in his short time at the top level that he has great potential.

On the other hand, O’Neill did most of his football back in Australia, with Brisbane Athletic between 2008 to 2012, before moving to England to pursue a professional career in football. In January 2016, he signed his first professional contract with Burnley.

Aiden O'Neill

The 18-year old made his senior debut at the start of the season, when the Clarets beat Liverpool 2-0 at home in the Premier League. He went on to make 4 more appearances, before Dyche decided to send him out on loan to League One strugglers Oldham Athletic.

O’Neill has continued his development in the third tier of the English football and has so far made 15 appearances for Oldham, registering one assist so far. A central midfielder by trade, he has been mostly utilized in a holding midfield role in the League One and he has given a good account of himself.

With such promising young talents coming through the ranks at Burnley, and their stay in the topmost echelon of the English football set to be extended, future certainly look bright for Sean Dyche and his team.