Michael Keane becomes a full time Claret

Last updated : 08 January 2015 By Tony Scholes

He's now committed himself to the Clarets on a three and a half year deal until the end of the 2017/18 season, this coming just days ahead of his 22nd birthday this Sunday,

Keane was a late loan signing in the last window. We had to apply for an extension to get the deal done and he joined George Boyd and Nathaniel Chalobah, who has since returned to Chelsea, in signing for us on the last day of the summer window.

His Premier League experience was limited to just over half a game for United at Sunderland just over a week earlier although he'd played in four League Cup ties for them, the first in a 3-0 win at Aldershot in October 2011 when he replaced Ezekiel Fryers with twenty minutes remaining, and the most recent was this season when they were hammered 4-0 in MK.

Loans away from Old Trafford enabled him to gain experience at Championship level. He had loans with Leicester in 2012/13 and with both Derby and Blackburn in 2013/14, and the one occasion he came up against us was on his Blackburn debut in March last year when we won 2-1 at Ewood Park.

He impressed the Blackburn fans who were hoping he'd return to them this season, as did their manager Gary Bowyer, but Burnley was his destination although he had a while to wait before breaking into the team.

He played the last few minutes of the game at Leicester when Ross Wallace scored the dramatic equaliser in stoppage time. He came on for Kieran Trippier that day but on the fourth Saturday of November he was thrown into the centre of defence at Stoke when Michael Duff was forced off.

With Stoke pushing for an equaliser, he did really well in the last twenty minutes or so, and with Duff having been ruled out since he's become a fixture in the starting line up and has got better with each game.

He's turned in some excellent performances, and none more so than last Thursday at Newcastle when he played alongside three different central defensive partners and also moved to the left for part of the game. His assured performance was a highlight of the team's performance.

Today's news of his signing will be well received by the supporters. Duff is back in full training this week but we still await news of Jason Shackell while Kevin Long has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

We needed defensive reinforcements and who better than a young player who has settled in really well at Turf Moor and already given us some excellent performances.

Let's hope he'll be able to celebrate his 22nd birthday this Sunday, alongside Duff who celebrates his 37th, with another three points for the Clarets.