His Arsenal career has yet to take off, but the Gunners’ loss could be Burnley’s gain.
With Burnley’s elevation to the Premier League, ties to some well-known players are once again possible, and manager Vincent Kompany is trying to make the most of them.
By leading the Clarets to an immediate return to the top division and breaking the Championship’s 100-point barrier in the process, the Belgian made an impression in his debut season as a head coach in English football.
Kompany was not scared to contact his old employers thanks to the loan signing of Taylor Harwood-Bellis from Manchester City as well as the permanent arrivals of CJ Egan-Riley and Arijanet Muric from the same club.
That may be a ruse he uses again this summer, according to the Daily Mail, who also claims that Burnley is interested in signing Albert Sambi Lokonga on a temporary basis.
Should Burnley sign 23 year starlet from Arsenal?
He has not had a great deal of success on the face of it during his two seasons in the Premier League, the second of which saw him loaned to Crystal Palace midway through the campaign.
However, the 23-year-old certainly has qualities that can be of use to Burnley, not least his ability on the ball. Indeed, Lokonga’s 90.4% pass-completion over the past year, as per FBref, places him in the top 3% of his positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues.
That figure climbs to 94.3% across his nine Premier League appearances for Arsenal last season, which was the most of any Gunners player to have featured more than five times.
While not as heralded, there are comparisons to be made between Lokonga and Liverpool midfielder Fabinho.
They won a very similar number of aerial duels last season (0.98 v 1.01 respectively) and tackles per 90 minutes (1.34 v 1.28), while their pass completion rates of 89.1 and 88.3 were pretty much identical.
Lokonga does not provide goals, which again is the same for Fabinho, with the pair involved in 1.23 and 1.85 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes respectively last season.
Kompany will know all about Lokonga’s ability, having previously managed him during their time together at Anderlecht. It was at that time the now-Burnley boss opened up on a conversation he had with Arteta and Pep Guardiola regarding the up-and-coming star.
“The first thing I did when I saw Sambi was I went to Mikel, and also Pep, but Mikel first and I said, ‘You’ve got to watch this guy, he’s the new Yaya Toure’,” Kompany told Rio Ferdinand’s FIVE YouTube channel.
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