FORMER Burnley favourite Gary Cahill believes Eric Djemba-Djemba cannot fail to benefit from his loan spell with the Clarets.

The England Under 20 international has first-hand experience of Turf Moor life after spending six months under Steve Cotterill on loan from Aston Villa two seasons ago.

And the Sheffield-born defender, who scooped the young player of the year award at the end of his Burnley tenure, is confident Villa Park team-mate Djemba-Djemba is capable of enjoying similar success during his time in East Lancashire, despite missing the trip to QPR through suspension after his harsh dismissal at Derby on Tuesday night.

"There isn't a better club outside the Premiership to go to," said Cahill, who had an initial one-month loan period extended by a further month before agreeing to stay until the end of the 2004-05 season.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Burnley. It's a great club to be at.

"They are good people and they talk to you, and you can always knock on the manager's door and have a chat with him."

Djemba-Djemba arrived at Turf Moor last month having played only a minute of first team football this season - when he came on as a late substitute in the first game at Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium.

Manager Steve Cotterill noted that his match fitness, as with that of new fellow outfield players Ade Akinbiyi and Joey Gudjonsson, was not up to the mark of the rest of the pack.

He said: "He is naturally fit. You can do all the running in the world though, but if you're not playing games, you're not going to be as sharp as the rest of the players.

"But it doesn't take long to get your fitness up."

When Cahill returned to Villa Park in the summer of 2005, it was expected that he would be knocking on the door of the first team the following term.

However, injury set his progress back and it wasn't until the latter stages of last season that he made his breakthrough.

Since November last year, the 21-year-old has been a regular in boss Martin O'Neill's first team plans.

Cotterill has said he would be happy for Djemba-Djemba to follow suit should he return to Villa Park.

"Going to Burnley did me the world of good," added Cahill.

"It's good for Eric to be playing every week now because games are important."

He added: "There's no reason why he couldn't come back and get back into the first team.

"It's down to yourself as a person. If he does well then he could come back and see if he can earn the right to have a place in the Villa team and I wish him all the best."