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Darko Churlinov is a forgotten man at Turf Moor, and his future at the club is sure to be in doubt

Friday December 30, 2022 at the bet365 Stadium will turn into an ‘I was there’ moment for Burnley fans.

The Clarets were in the midst of a promotion battle as they looked to return to the Premier League under the tutelage of Vincent Kompany, and had a Friday night trip to Stoke City to deal with.

With the festive period throwing up all sorts of selection headaches, the Belgian gave Darko Churlinov his first - and so far only - league start for the Turf Moor outfit, as he played 52 minutes against the Potters before being replaced.

20 months on, and the Macedonian has featured in just one league game since, with a loan move to Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok seeing him facing the prospect of another year away from Lancashire, with his long-term future at the club looking bleak.

Darko Churlinov fails to hit the heights with Burnley after Stuttgart move

The question marks may have already been arising in the summer of 2022 when Churlinov signed for the club from Stuttgart, with the striker never having started a league game for the Bundesliga outfit, and scoring just once from 21 substitute appearances.

A stint with Schalke 04 in the German second tier was all he had to show for his efforts before moving to England, where he netted twice in 22 outings for his temporary side, ahead of signing a four-year contract in Lancashire.

And two years on from that deal being agreed, Burnley fans would be hard pushed to pick him out of a line-up of past players, having barely seen the forward feature over the past 24 months, such has been the nature of the Clarets’ squad over that time.

With a number of players brought in to try to achieve - and maintain - Premier League status, Churlinov was a byproduct of the high turnover at Turf Moor of late, with their scattergun approach to transfer business seeing them end up with a number of players in the footballing wilderness.

Having made his debut as a substitute against Blackpool in August 2022, the Macedonian made brief appearances in just four more league games before Christmas, before being given the nod in the Potteries for his solo start in claret and blue.

Having been on the outskirts during their Championship campaign, it was hard to see the forward pushing for a starting place as Burnley reached the top flight, and as a result, a return to Schalke followed, with just one goal in 10 appearances hardly helping his cause for a recall to the Clarets over the summer.

Of course, Churlinov has had other struggles as well, having been hospitalised due to blood poisoning in the summer of 2023, which put him on the shelf until the January transfer window of 2024, which is when he headed back to Germany temporarily.

The loan to Poland only looks to be prolonging the inevitable in the case of Churlinov, who can’t be blamed for wanting to stay on the wages offered him at Turf Moor, while Burnley pay the price for their extravagant transfer policy of recent times.

Scott Parker tasked with trimming Burnley squad ahead of Championship campaign

As it stands, Burnley have the most players in their squad in the whole of the Championship, with 34 players calling Turf Moor home as it stands.

With enough players to almost name two match day squads, incoming boss Scott Parker [pictured] has his work cutout to trim the playing personnel down to size for the year ahead, with plenty more players likely to leave in the weeks to come.

Churlinov joins the likes of Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Lawrence Vigoroux, Jack Cork and Samuel Bastien in leaving Lancashire this summer, although the former Premier League side still have some work to do to find a future for the bloated squad at Parker’s disposal as it stands.

With the plethora of talent still on the books, it is unlikely that the Macedonian import will ever be part of the former Fulham boss’s plans during his time at Turf Moor, with his future almost certainly lying away from the club in the years to come.