Burnley: Luca Koleosho impact could seriously scare Championship defences - View | OneFootball

Burnley are likely to unleash Luca Koleosho upon the Championship next season - and to potentially-devastating effect

Burnley will be right up there among the chief favourites for promotion from the Championship next season.

The Clarets, who were immediately relegated under Vincent Kompany last term, possess plenty of pedigree and know-how at second-tier level through the likes of Jay Rodriguez, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and 2023 promotion dazzler Anass Zaroury.

Championship defenders will understand all too well the threat that those individuals carry at this level, although they can only do so much to handle it.

In contrast, Luca Koleosho represents a real unknown quantity in the division, but that's not to say that opponents shouldn't be dreading the sight of his marauding runs down Burnley's left-hand side come August.

Luca Koleosho will be a difference-maker for Burnley in the Championship

Koleosho was one of 15 summer acquisitions made by Kompany in the wake of their return to the Premier League, joining from Spanish outfit Espanyol.

Having only turned out in professional football on six occassions at the time of arrival, Koleosho was a complete mystery to Clarets supporters, though it didn't stay that way for long.

The USA-born winger, who represents Italy at youth level through his mother, quickly caught the eye with a series of dazzling displays against Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest.

His dizzying, yet dangerously direct dribbling left seasoned top-flight defenders with twisted blood, and whilst the 19-year-old's end product naturally requires further refinement, those performances leave little doubt to be had about the influence he can exert in a lower division next time around.

The data beneath his return of a solitary goal and assist apiece is pretty frightening in the Premier League alone - let alone the Championship - and with the necessary fine-tuning, he bears every chance of igniting the division next year.

Koleosho's top-flight foray was prematurely curtailed through a serious knee injury in December, which kept the flyer out of action for the remainder of the season.

In a preverse way, however, you could argue that it may just serve as a blessing in disguise ahead of Burnley's second-tier return.

Without injury, Luca Koleosho would likely be leaving Burnley

Koleosho's less-impressive goal return suggests that, even with better fortunes on the injury front, he still wouldn't have been able to solely save them from a dispiriting relegation.

But, that said, the continued projection of his promise would've likely earned him a transfer away from Turf Moor this summer, which now looks less likely given how much football he's missed over the last six months.

It was never good news for Burnley to lose arguably their most exciting attacking threat so early on in the season, yet if we're looking at the bigger picture here, having a player of Koleosho's invention and dynamism in the Championship will surely be of great benefit to their promotion ambitions.

Take Crysencio Summerville for example.

Though his talents were far from a secret, his fleeting reels of promise in the Premier League preceded a truly devastating impact at Championship level, in which the flying Dutchman tallied up 19 goals and a further nine assists to fire Leeds United - a likely promotion rival for Burnley - to within 90 minutes of returning to the top-flight at the first time of asking.

There are plenty of stylistic parallels to draw upon too, with the two both combining frightening speed with equally mesmerising close control and ingenuity, although Koleosho will have to undertake work if he is to chalk up close to Summerville's numbers in the goal involvements department.

Burnley will be hoping that the prospect can orchestrate a similar impact and, in all likelihood, there is very little to rule out Koleosho emerging as a leading operator across the league in a few month's time.