MICHAEL Duff has warned his team-mates to be wary of the threat posed by former Clarets striker Steven Fletcher for Sunderland this weekend.
Duff is the only player in the Burnley squad remaining from their last season in the Premier League five years ago, when Fletcher scored 12 times in 38 games for the club.
The Scotland internationalâs form in front of goal wasnât enough to keep the Clarets up, and having arrived from Hibernian for ÂŁ3million, he left to join Wolves for ÂŁ6.5million at the end of that campaign.
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Fletcher has scored just four times in 19 games for the Black Cats this season, but he is likely to partner Jermain Defoe in attack at the Stadium of Light this weekend, and Duff knows he has the class in front of goal to start scoring on a regular basis once again.
âHeâs a very, very good player,â he said.
âHe scored a few goals for us and went to Wolves who paid a lot of money for him, then Sunderland paid a lot of money for him.
âIf heâs fit, I think heâs had a few injury issues this season, I imagine it will be him and Jermain Defoe playing up front for them, so thereâs definitely goals in them.
âHe came down from Scotland and he took to it like a duck to water and has played the rest of his career in this league, when itâs not an easy league to play in.
âThe numbers back it up. The amount of money teams like Sunderland and Wolves are prepared to pay prove he is a good player.â
After 24 goals in 68 games for Wolves, Fletcher joined Sunderland for ÂŁ12million in 2012, but has scored just 18 times in 70 games.
Defoe has started Sunderlandâs last two matches having completed a return to the Premier League from Toronto FC.
The former England international is another player Duff has faced in the past, but he has less fond memories after Defoeâs late strike helped Tottenham knock Burnley out of the League Cup at the semi-final stage in 2008/09.
âHeâs up there on the all-time Premier League goalscorers now,â 37-year-old Duff said of Defoe.
âHeâs sharp and heâs got an eye for goal, thatâs why theyâve paid a lot of money to get him.
âTheyâve got other good players in the team though, as every other Premier League team has.
âWe wonât be signing a centre forward for ÂŁ12million this January. Everyone in the squad knows that, the manager knows that, we just get on with it.â
The two teams occupy the two places directly above the relegation zone in the Premier League, with the Black Cats ahead by one goal in the goal difference column.
Despite that the Clarets remain favourites for relegation this season, but Duff insists the squad are used to being written off now.
âAt the start of last season people said we wouldnât last,â he said, âit got to Christmas and we wouldnât last, and then injuries would kick in, then we were there in March and it was the same thing.
âWe got promoted and didnât have a prayer this year. so weâre doing alright. Itâs a belief within the squad, the staff and the supporters that we can achieve.
âThe lads arenât really bothered about other peopleâs opinions of us. What matters is in our squad and whatâs said in our dressing room.
âWe go into games and it is âlittle old Burnleyâ. Itâs just the way it is, you canât affect how other people think about you.â
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