Opinion: Burnley well placed to compete for promotion despite financial uncertainty

A final day defeat to Newcastle United has left the club preparing for life in the Championship.

This is not the start to their tenure that the new owners would have wanted, having only taken over the club in the last 18 months.

The relegation also ensured that a £65 million loan will now immediately need to be repaid as part of the acquisition by ALK Capital.

This is the consequence of a leveraged buyout, which has saddled the club with debt it previously didn’t have before the change of ownership.

But it may not all be doom and gloom for the club.

While there will likely be Premier League clubs circling around the team’s top talent, there is still hope that the club could maintain a lot of its talent despite going down.

That the club is reportedly putting a £40 million price tag on Nick Pope should indicate as much.

A club that desperately needed to raise funds through player sales does not put such an absurdly high figure on one of their best players.

This should cause most clubs to steer well clear of thinking they can pick off Burnley’s best assets on the cheap this summer.

And if the team can remain intact then there is every chance that this squad can easily gain promotion back to the top flight immediately.

The appointment of Sean Dyche’s replacement will be a key factor in the team’s success next season, with Vincent Kompany leading the way.

Players such as Dwight McNeil and Maxwell Cornet will be suited to Kompany’s more aggressive attacking approach, which has the potential to light up the second division.

The core of this squad is still quite young, with older players like Ben Mee, Matthew Lowton and Jack Cork all falling down the pecking order in the last 12 months.

These are all positive signs of progress