With just a few weeks to go until the Championship season gets underway, football fans will be ready for a new campaign to commence, even those from the three clubs relegated from the Premier League; Watford, Norwich City and Burnley. Of all three clubs, the latter have emerged as the most likely to come straight back up in the English championship predictions, with new manager Vincent Kompany enjoying a relatively successful summer transfer window all things considered.
The Belgian was hardly the most experienced candidate to become Sean Dyche’s permanent successor, and after dealing with the departures of Nick Pope, Nathan Collins and James Tarkowski, it looked as though things had taken a turn for the worst at Turf Moor. However, some shrewd recruitment has seen the Clarets repair some of their fragmented squad, and although Wout Weghorst, the man tasked with finding goals in Chris Wood’s absence, has gone on loan to Be?ikta? for this season, Kompany will be encouraged by his new talisman — Scott Twine.
The forward, who arrived from MK Dons after they failed to gain promotion from League One last season, scored 20 goals and provided 13 assists for the Buckinghamshire outfit, and has now been tasked with leading the line in the league above. It will be interesting to see if Twine can make the step up, with the 23-year-old clearly possessing a good eye for goal. However, there will be plenty of strikers also in the bid for the Championship golden boot and, with Ivan Toney then Aleksandar Mitrovi? blitzing the record for the most goals scored in a single season, the pressure will be on from the opening day.
Just from watching him in League One you can see that his range of goals will instantly win over the Burnley faithful. For so long they were used to a specific mould of player — Wood, Ashley Barnes, Sam Vokes — physical target men who can hold the ball up but hardly possess the technical attributes to weave past defenders and elicit fear with their quick footwork. The prerequisite of previous Burnley forwards was unfashionable, ugly and effective, whilst Twine still has the latter in terms of productivity, he can also run in behind, beat defenders and time runs more efficiently, which makes him a different kind of threat in the final third.
You get the impression that Twine is always hungry to learn and while Kompany’s coaching experience is subpar to other long serving managers in the league, he’s worked with some of the best forwards of the modern era, and the Belgians philosophy, taken from the book of Pep Guardiola, will benefit the young forward, something he acknowledged when signing for the club.
“I would say I’m a risk taker,” he said. “I like to create chances and make things happen. So, as well as scoring goals and assisting my teammates, I’ll be looking to bring them attributes with me too.
“I spoke to the gaffer (Vincent Kompany), and I had look at the facilities. I spoke to numerous people involved and they all advised me this would be a good move. I thought that too and it just feels like the right place for me, so that’s the main thing.”
“I spoke to him and his plans are exciting. It was a no brainer for me to sign.”
With Teemu Pukki, Ismaïla Sarr and Andreas Weimann the early favourites for the Golden Boot, you wonder how things will pan out after a few games, with Burnley enjoying a relatively stress-free start to the season, but then again, when it comes to the Championship, nothing is guaranteed.
