JACK Cork says he could never have envisaged the speed of change at Burnley from his first spell with the club to the end of his first season.

The midfielder arrived on loan from Chelsea in the Clarets' first Premier League season in 2009/10, under Brian Laws.

He returned for a full season on loan from Stamford Bridge the following year after relegation back to the Championship.

Cork came back to Turf Moor last summer in a £10million move, via transfers to Southampton and Swansea, and he admits he arrived at a club transformed from his initial spell.

Not only are Burnley about to embark on a Europa League adventure after finishing seventh in the Premier League, Cork is impressed with how much the club has developed off the field too, most notably with the impressive multi-million pound training ground developments.

“It’s grown in such a short time. It was only eight years ago," said Cork of the first time he joined the Clarets.

"For me coming back I didn’t think this could be built so quickly and change so much.

“There’s the new training ground, new facilities, a lot more staff. We used to get changed at the stadium, drive down to the (training) pitches, then get back in the cars and have dinner in one of the boxes (at the ground).

“That was in the Premier League at the time. It was crazy. The investment in players and facilities around the club is crazy."

And Cork admits his first season back at Turf Moor has been just as eye-opening on the field too.

"You just want to finish outside the bottom three with 40 points, that's what you set your target as every year in the Premier League," said the 28-year-old. "It would be a bit arrogant not to because it's a tough league which is constantly changing with teams and managers and money.

"It's difficult and every year it gets harder and harder to predict. For us to finish so much higher than we'd predicted is great."

And Cork, who won his first England cap last season, on the back of some impressive performances for the Clarets, concedes that such a memorable campaign will be tough to top.

"It's not impossible but it would be hard to build on a season as good as this," he said.

"I've been in teams before that have had great seasons, got carried away and then it just hasn't worked.

"For us to have a good start and get to 40 points will always be the marker at the start of every season."