George Boyd urges Trippier to stay at Turf Moor

Clarets midfielder George Boyd has urged Kieran Trippier to stay at Turf Moor and help win promotion back to the Premier League.
George Boyd is hoping Kieran Trippier will stay with the ClaretsGeorge Boyd is hoping Kieran Trippier will stay with the Clarets
George Boyd is hoping Kieran Trippier will stay with the Clarets

Trippier is expected to join Liverpool-bound Danny Ings and leave the club after an impressive campaign in the top flight, with Spurs and Aston Villa leading the chase for his signature.

But Boyd feels the former Manchester City youngster could be back at the top level within 12 months if he remains with Burnley.

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He said: “It’s important we keep Tripps and everyone else stays.

“I love playing on the right with Tripps, I can go inside and he overlaps me, and he’s a great crosser of the ball.

“He’s big with assists, and all the crosses he puts over in games are a bit part of the way we play, so hopefully he stays.

“I think if we can keep a similar squad together, we’ll have a great chance.

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“We’ve got a good enough team to come straight back up, and the gaffer said in a meeting after the season ended he expects us to.

“We’ve got confidence from playing in the Premier League and we want to get back in it.

“We’ll get more chances in the Championship, and score a lot more goals, so the future is bright. We’ve got a lot of experience at that level, most of us have played there for most of our careers.

“We know it’s a hard slog, Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday, but with the fitness of this team, I think it will suit us down to the ground.

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“It’s magnified in the Premier League, everyone is watching from around the world, but the Championship is a good league and I’m sure we’ll keep most of the squad together and give it a good go.”

Should Trippier leave, as expected, Burnley have been linked with a number of potential replacements.

Villa are thought to be keen to use former Sheffield United man Matthew Lowton as a makeweight in any deal, while another former Manchester City youngster, Doncaster Rovers’ Reece Wabara, has also been mooted as a target.

Ings will join Liverpool when his contract expires at the end of the month, but while Boyd expects Burnley to replace the England Under 21 frontman, he feels the club already have the strikers required to fire the Clarets up.

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Sam Vokes netted 21 goals in the promotion season before suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury which saw him miss half of last term, while Lukas Jutkiewicz hit nine in 2013/14 for Middlesbrough and Bolton, and Marvin Sordell claimed eight on loan at Charlton.

Boyd is confident the trio – as Ashley Barnes recovers from a cruciate and medial knee ligament problem – will find the net on a regular basis in the Championship again: “I’m sure the gaffer will go and replace Ingsy.

“We obviously need to replace his goals, but we’ve also got Vokesy, Jukesy and Marv as well, who’ve played in the Championship for years and proved they can score goals at that level.

“Barnesey had a great season as well before his injury.

“We’re lucky we have three or four top Championship strikers, but hopefully we’ll strengthen further and give it a right good go.

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“If you look at the sides promoted this season, you need your two strikers to score 20/25 goals each, and I think we’ve got that in the dressing room, and hopefully they can spur themselves on to do that.”

Boyd believes a year in the Premier League can only have improved Sean Dyche’s players: “I found it as well, when you play in the Premier League, it takes you a few games to get that confidence to prove you belong at that level, and I think everyone in the squad proved they can.

“You can see how confidence has grown, and everyone has grown in stature.”