Luke McNally discusses Burnley future amid speculation linking him with Coventry City return

The defender didn’t get the game time he would have wanted at Turf Moor last season after making the move from Oxford United.

He spent the second half of the campaign on loan with Coventry City where he earned plenty of plaudits for his performances.

Speculation has emerged on social media that the Sky Blues are about to announce the 23-year-old’s permanent signing, but the Burnley Express understands those reports are wide of the mark.

Nevertheless, McNally is down the pecking order at Turf Moor behind Hjalmar Ekdal, Jordan Beyer and Ameen Al-Dakil and game time in the top flight might be hard to come by.

Addressing his next steps, McNally told the LOI Central podcast: “You go into pre-season and stranger things have happened really, but I will just go in, keep myself as fit as possible and do as well as I can.

“After that, we’ll see what happens.”

When asked if he feels ready to make the step-up to the Premier League, the centre back added: “I’d love that challenge.

“I’ve jumped up a lot of levels before so if I can do that one it would be unbelievable, but you just have to embrace any challenge you get.

“The main thing is to be playing. That’s the thing I need most at the minute.”

Despite only making four appearances for the Clarets last season, McNally believes his game has come on leaps and bounds working under Vincent Kompany.

“I took a bit of time where I had six months of just learning what he wanted,” he said.

“Despite not really playing, it brought my game on a hell of a lot just being on the training pitch with him. He’s obviously the same position as well so that’s helped a lot. He joined in the odd time in training and he was technically unbelievable!”

McNally’s season ended in heartache following Coventry’s play-off final defeat to Luton on penalties.

Despite the setback, the Irishman only has good things to say about his time with the Sky Blues, where he made 22 appearances.

“It was very tough,” he admitted.

“It’s more disappointing for your teammates. When you’re on loan it’s probably more outside of you, because you’re not guaranteed to be there the following season, so I was more gutted for the lads around me, the staff and the fans as well because they supported me so well.

“That was really gutting. To get a winner’s medal at Wembley would have been special.

“There were a lot of factors, but I’m sure most of us would look back and think ‘what a year we had’, because we weren’t expected to get that far.

“We had some unbelievable moments. We went up to Middlesbrough in the semi-final and got the job done, so that was an unbelievable night.

“I’ve got so many good memories, I can’t really look back with a whole lot of disappointment because it was such a special year.”