Chelsea loanee Ian Maatsen looking to achieve promotion with Burnley

Young left back Ian Maatsen has set his sights on a couple ambitious targets this season. One, he’s hoping to achieve promotion with his current team. Two, he’s hoping to keep developing so that with or without Burnley, he will get to play above the Championship level next season.

Bold? Yes. Achievable? Certainly.

“My ambition with Burnley is to become champions, which gets us promoted, of course. My ambition as an individual is to continue developing as a player and after this season we’ll see what the next chapter is.”

After twelve rounds of play in the Championship, Burnley are sitting fifth, five points from the top spot. Maatsen himself has directly contributed with a goal and three assists in nine appearances thus far. If the season ended today, they’d be in the promotion playoffs, but surely they would want something more concrete if they could.

Maatsen’s ambitions match those of his manager Vincent Kompany, who took over in the summer as well.

“It [the ambition] attracted me a lot but the main reason was the manager; a big name, a solid central defender and he knows what you have to do to get to the top. He explained on the phone how he wanted to play and I think it really suits me, which is why I chose to come to Burnley.”

-Ian Maatsen; source: Burnley Express

So far, so good for Maatsen and Burnley then. The 20-year-old has two years left on his current Chelsea contract, and while his prospects of carving out a senior career with the Blues are looking a bit dim at the moment — Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella should have the position well handled for the foreseeable future — you never know what the future might hold.