Matthew Lowton has signed a three-year contract at Burnley, but he doesn’t intend to spend more than a year of this playing in the Championship.
The Clarets suffered relegation from the Premier League last season, but still won many new admirers with a style of football which some believe make them favourites for promotion this term. Sean Dyche, though, has inevitably lost star players Danny Ings, who will join Liverpool for a fee yet to be determined, and Kieran Trippier who has joined Tottenham Hotspur for £3.5million.
A replacement has already been for the latter, with Lowton joining from Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £1million. The 26-year-old made over 7o top-flight appearances whilst at the Midlands club, and whilst he will consider it a blow to drop down a division, he clearly feels he will be back amongst the elite with the Clarets sooner rather than later.
“Things went pretty quickly from when the club showed a bit of interest,” the right fullback told the official club website after completing the transfer. “Straight away I said yes because I just want to go and play football every week. It’s been a little frustrating lately but the manager here said I’d play a lot of football and I’m really looking forward to getting started.
“I had two years left on my contract, but I haven’t played enough football in the last year and I’ve worked hard growing up to be a footballer. I don’t want to come on a Saturday afternoon and watch other players do it. There were a few clubs interested, but Burnley belongs back in the Premier League and hopefully I can come in and help us get back up there.”
Lowton joined Villa from Sheffield United in the summer of 2012 for a fee of £3million, and he enjoyed a fine debut season in which he played in all but one of their league matches. This led to him signing a new four-year deal the following year, but he only went on to make 23 league outings in 2012/14, whilst last season he played just 12 as he fell down the pecking order.
