Former Clarets leaving and staying at clubs
With the Football League season at an end, many clubs have this week been announcing their retained lists and we have noted that three former Burnley players have been released at the end of their contracts.
Two of those players didn’t play first team football for Burnley but I was very surprised to see that goalkeeper Aidan Stone, who left us two years ago, had been released by Mansfield Town. One of two players released by us in 2019, he’s been with Mansfield since and has made 25 league appearances in League Two for them. Although out of the side in the early part of this season, he’s been their regular first choice goalkeeper since January.
Joining Mansfield at the same time as Aidan was defender James Clarke (pictured). Like Stone he broke into the first team last season and made twelve league appearances. This season he’d played just a couple of cup games until the beginning of this month but he’s made two further league appearances and has won himself a further year at Field Mill.
Over at Preston, both former Burnley players on their playing staff have been released on their return from loans. The experienced David Nugent, now 36, who was with us on loan from Portsmouth in the 2009/10 season, rejoined Preston two summers ago from Derby but he scored just once for them last season in a 2-1 home win against Fulham. He didn’t feature at all this season and on the last day of the January transfer window he joined Tranmere on loan.
Josh Ginnelly opted to leave Burnley three summers ago to join Walsall. He did really well for them in the first half of the 2018/19 season, so much so that Preston swooped to sign him on New Year’s Day 2019. He had to wait until April for his debut as a late substitute and in total he made just six substitute appearances in his time at Deepdale.
He spent the second half of the 2019/20 season on loan at Bristol Rovers before signing a season long loan with Hearts this season. Unfortunately he suffered a bad injury in January that ruled him out for the season but there could be some good news on the horizon though for him.
Just a couple of weeks ago Hearts boss Robbie Neilson said that the player wanted to stay at Tynecastle and that they’d opened talks with Preston over a potential permanent transfer. It looks very likely that he will become a Hearts player before the start of next season.
There has also been some good news for former youth team player Dan Moss. On leaving Burnley two years ago he signed for Millwall who have confirmed that they have offered him a new deal.
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