Maxwel Cornet and his surprising move to Burnley.

Image via LancsLive

When it comes to Burnley and Sean Dyche the last thing you would associate with the Lancashire club is exoctic imports from Europe. Burnley have been known for their very strong British and Irish core, with more functional players in the likes of Ashley Barnes, James Tarkowski and Dale Stephens. Which made it even more surprising that this summer, Burnley payed £13.5 million for a player not from Ireland but from the Ivory Coast.

At Lyon, Cornet who at 25 was a key part of Les Gons, making over 180 appearances, and scoring 50 goals in all competitions.

At the start of his career Cornet was a winger playing on the left side, and being a vital part of Lyon who made a few appearances in the Champions League. He particularly loved playing against Manchester City who Cornet has managed to score in every game, as the Ivorian scoring 3 times in the group stage in 2018.

Then at the start of the 2020 season with Lyon having a few injuries at left back, Rudi Garcia decided to move Cornet into playing as a full back, impressing particularly in that position which did lead to his attacking output being reduced.

Then in the COVID delayed Champions League, his scored a vital goal against the very same Manchester City to help Lyon reach their first semi finals in a decade in a shock 3-1 win. Unfortunately Lyon were completely outclassed by eventual winners Bayern Munich.

Maxwell Cornet ended his 5 year association with Lyon, this summer to move to the small town, in the North West of England.

Since joining the claret and blue side, Cornet has impressed massively scoring 5 in 9 league appearances and has mostly benefited from playing further up the pitch and in some games being a centre forward for Sean Dyche.

Burnley have struggled this season currently being in the bottom 3 and are 2 points off Leeds United.

But knowing Burnley they always manage to find a way of staying in the Premier League, and with another 27 games it will be interesting to see how the Bees and Cornet get on.