Burnley will be looking at Nottingham Forest with envy after losing Premier League status: View | OneFootball

Chris Wood is performing exceptionally well at Nottingham Forest, which may make Burnley fans envious.

Burnley have had plenty of ups and downs over the last decade or so.

The Clarets have floated between the Premier League and the Championship in recent years, and aside from the 2016/17 campaign in which they earned European football, they have struggled to truly cement themselves in the Premier League.

On the last two occasions that they suffered relegation from the top flight, they went straight back up as champions in the following season, so they will be hoping to repeat that achievement this season.

Burnley currently play their football under Scott Parker in the Championship and the obvious aim for the club this season is to make an immediate return to the top flight.

Parker has been here before, having guided Fulham and Bournemouth into the Premier League, and so have Burnley. There will be a weight of expectation on their shoulders as they dominated the Championship the last two times they played in the division.

The Clarets enjoyed their recent six-year spell in the Premier League under Sean Dyche and had some fantastic players on the books. One striker in particular will be forever remembered at Turf Moor and is still banging in top-flight goals today.

Chris Wood's time at Burnley

The Clarets finished 16th in the Premier League in the 2016/17 campaign and were looking to improve on their performances in the following season in order to truly establish themselves as a top-flight club.

Dyche was the man at the helm and had installed hope into the Burnley faithful that they could take the Premier League by surprise. The summer of 2017 saw the Clarets sign Chris Wood on a permanent deal from Leeds United after the striker had scored 27 Championship goals in 44 games.

This turned out to be a fantastic move for all parties, as Wood went on to become a modern-day club legend. The New Zealand international scored 10 goals in his first season for the club as Burnley finished seventh in the Premier League and unprecedentedly earned a place in the Europa League qualifiers.

Wood would go on to hit double figures for the Clarets over the next three seasons as well and was one of their standout performers that they could rely on through challenging times.

After scoring a total of 53 goals for Burnley, Wood departed for Newcastle United, which was devastating for the Clarets.

Chris Wood post-Burnley

In January 2022, Newcastle United activated a release clause in Wood's contract that was a fee of around £25 million, meaning he would be trading Turf Moor for St James' Park shortly after Newcastle's takeover.

Wood's time at Newcastle was far from spectacular though, as he managed just four goals in a year, before being loaned out to Nottingham Forest. Last summer, the striker signed for Forest on a permanent deal and went on to play some of the best football of his career.

Last season saw Wood score 14 goals in a struggling Nottingham Forest side and eventually helped them comfortably over the line to avoid relegation to the Championship.

At the same time, Burnley finished second from bottom – with Wood's replacement, Wout Weghorst, failing to replace his goals – and dropped into the second tier.

The Clarets will be looking at Forest with huge envy right now as they could be in their position in the Premier League if Wood's release clause was never activated and he'd stayed at Turf Moor.