Rumoured Burnley target Sergio Gomez addresses his future with Manchester City

Rumoured Burnley target Sergio Gomez has expressed his desire to stay and fight for his place at Manchester City.

Burnley: Mikautadze could be a Tella upgrade

Georges Mikautadze finished top scorer in Ligue 2 with Metz last season and may be on his way to the Premier League with Burnley.

Burnley continue to be linked with a striker ahead of their first season back in the Premier League, with some faces more familiar than others.

El Bilal Toure is a name that is exciting Burnley fans after starring for Almeria last season, while Coventry City’s Viktor Gyokeres – who has lit up the Championship – needs no introducing.

There is potentially another option on Vincent Kompany’s radar, as the Daily Mail reports that Metz striker Georges Mikautadze is being considered.

Who is Georges Mikautadze?

Mikautadze may not be a “name” as such, but he is one of the rising stars of European football after scoring 23 goals in Ligue 2 last season to finish as top scorer.

The 22-year-old joins Olivier Giroud in finishing top of the scoring charts in the French second tier, the latter doing so in 2009-10 with Tours when aged two years older than Mikautadze.

Giroud would immediately go on to join Montpellier, where he continued his good form to fire the club to an unlikely title success, before enjoying triumphant spells with Arsenal, Chelsea and current club Milan.

It may well be that Mikautadze is on his own path to the very top, and those who have watched the Georgia international close up certainly seem to think so.

Football author Mohamed Mohamed has described Mikautadze as having a “unique skill set” and the “potential to become the next Ligue 2 starlet who performs well in a big five league.”

Burnley may well prove to be a good stepping stone for the Lyon-born attacker, especially as Clarets boss Kompany has previously made his interest in the player known.

While the manager said last summer that Mikautadze was “probably out of our range”, that is not likely to be the case this window following promotion to the Premier League.

With a goal return of 0.68 per 90 minutes last season, as per FBref, Mikautadze undoubtedly has the pedigree to make an impact for Burnley. To put that figure in some context, Nathan Tella – Burnley’s top scorer last season – scored at a rate of 0.61 goals per 90 minutes.

Mikautadze is not letting the hype get to him, either, as he showed on Saturday when scoring a crucial goal for Georgia in their 2-1 Euro 2020 qualifying win in Cyprus.

With Tella back at parent club Southampton, and Ashley Barnes leaving to join Norwich City, Mikautadze can be an ideal upgrade on both. Indeed, Mikautadze also outperformed Tella last season in terms of assists (0.24 v 0.18) and shots on target per 90 minutes (3.06 v 2.60).

Potentially available for £8m this summer, according to Football Observatory, moving for Mikautadze seems a no-brainer for the Clarets if they are looking for a rising star ready to make his mark in a major league.