Burnley have somewhat faded into the background this summer compared to Sunderland and Leeds United’s more manic spending habits.

Some standout additions so far have seen the Clarets welcome in the likes of Kyle Walker and Martin Dubravka on free transfers, who both know the challenges of the Premier League well, on top of just sealing a deal worth around the £20m mark for Chelsea striker Armando Broja.

The worry will be, however, if Broja can settle into life at Turf Moor from the get-go, having experienced a turbulent few seasons in and out of Stamford Bridge.

Broja's up-and-down form in the PL

The Albanian centre-forward is just fresh off an extremely difficult spell at Everton last season.

Indeed, the hit-and-miss 23-year-old would only line up for 11 contests with the Toffees in total, as getting into his goalscoring groove was consistently derailed by missing 155 days of action through recurring injuries.

In the end, Broja would fail to break his Goodison Park duck, with his goal tally in the Premier League in total coming in at a meagre eight strikes from 76 outings.

If he were to wrestle free of these lingering injury demons, though, Burnley could be in luck, with a stint on loan at Southampton across the 2021/22 season seeing him bag a reasonable nine strikes, having only missed two top-flight clashes all campaign.

Three senior strikes also came his way for the Blues – which included this well-taken goal being hammered home against Wolverhampton Wanderers – with Burnley just praying now that the £20m gamble to land the 23-year-old pays off.

Scott Parker might not be overflowing with confidence that Broja can stay fit and firing across the 38-game marathon to come, however, which could well lead the top-flight newcomers down the path of trying to secure a late deal for this clinical EFL marksman.

The £21m target who's an instant upgrade on Broja

Away from Broja, the Clarets aren’t exactly blessed with an abundance of quality up top.

Parker will hope the likes of Lyle Foster, Michael Obafemi, and Zian Flemming can step it up a notch in the Premier League, but he won’t be banking on them to be the difference-makers week in week out, considering both Flemming and Foster only managed 13 Championship goals between them last season, while Obafemi was loaned out.

This is where the heroics of Josh Sargent could come to the rescue deep into the chaotic transfer window, with TEAMTalk speculating earlier this week that both Daniel Farke’s Leeds and the Clarets were locked into a tussle to try and snap up the Canaries goal machine.

The report did state that Burnley were still keen on securing the potent American’s services despite just confirming a move for Broja to come to Lancashire, with Sargent reportedly costing around the £21m mark to obtain, as per a bid that recently came Norwich’s way from Wolfsburg.

Amazingly, Sargent is already off the mark this season in the Championship for Liam Manning’s men, with his quick thinking on the opening day of the tricky division resulting in an equalising goal being slotted home, away from also helping himself to another against Portsmouth.

Norwich will be doing everything in their power to try and convince their “complete” striker – as he was lauded by ex-Norwich boss David Wagner – to stay put at Carrow Road past the summer, but if Burnley want to win themselves an instant Broja upgrade, they should go all out to try and snap up the Norwich number nine before the window slams shut.

Games played

231

184

Goals scored

73

44

Assists

23

12

Hat-tricks

1x

1x

The table above further reinforces why Burnley should be going full steam ahead for a late deal to win Sargent’s red-hot services, with the 25-year-old now up to 73 goals and counting across 230 career appearances. Broja is some way off reaching this same level of clinical performance, with only 44 strikes next to his name subsequently.

Of course, there is a risk attached to Sargent joining, too, with his own injury troubles seeing him miss a colossal 44 clashes for club and country over the last two seasons, as per Transfermarkt.

Moreover, he isn’t that well-versed in what it takes to be a success at the elite level of the Premier League, having mustered up just two strikes here previously.

Yet, having been recently dubbed as the “top man” in the Championship by second-tier pundit Sam Parkin, the time feels right for him to cause a storm at the punishing level, which could come at Broja’s expense.