Clarkston kid Johnny Armstrong faces an opportunity of a lifetime after being offered a two-week trial with Burnley.
The 16-year-old will head south to join up with the English Premier League side's development side on Monday, July 12.
Armstrong was at Motherwell last season but he wasn’t offered a professional contract so he’s now a free agent.
The former Caldervale High School pupil remains in talks with the Fir Park side but his father Craig admits Burnley’s interest is a dream come true.
He said: “His agent phoned and asked if Johnny would be interested in going on-trial at Burnley and it was a no-brainer. They phoned us to say that they wanted him to come for an initial two-week trial.
“After that, Burnley are going on a Scottish tour and they said if he does well then he will be part of their development squad for that trip.
“They’ve been phenomenal. They’ve put us up in hotels, paid for all our meals and you couldn’t ask them for anything more.
“He will go down for a week then come home before going back down for another week.
"They’ve said that they’d offer him a scholarship programme, if they like him, because they can’t sign him professionally until he’s 17-years-old.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity to go and impress at an English Premier League side.
"They told me that they’ve identified Johnny as a hard-hitting central midfielder with incredible determination.”
Due to the pandemic and the subsequent disruption to development football, Armstrong only played a handful of games for Motherwell.
The tenacious midfielder enjoyed working under former players Steven Hammell, Brain Kerr and David Clarkson within ‘Well’s reputable academy.
Armstrong’s dad, Craig, admits the former Gartcairn youngster decided to join the Steelmen, from Partick Thistle, due to their reputation for developing academy players and he could still return next season.
He added: “Johnny was at Partick Thistle for a couple of years and he won player of the year but he moved to Motherwell.
“They were at the elite level so we felt that was the right decision. Johnny played in a couple of tournaments abroad with Thistle against the likes of Fulham and he impressed.
“I remember Thistle told us that a few other clubs were talking about him.
“At Motherwell, he didn’t really play too often because of Covid. They handed out contracts to a host of players last week but they hadn’t seen Johnny for long enough to off him one.
“They’ve offered him to come and train full-time so he will do that for a week before heading down to Burnley.
“He wants to go full-time because he’s seen all his pals do that and he believes he’s good enough to follow them.
“He doesn’t want to go anywhere that he's not full-time. It was just a difficult situation at Motherwell because of Covid and I understood their decision because they’d barely seen him play.
“I’ve nothing but positive things to say about Motherwell because they’ve been really good and honest with Johnny - that’s all you can ask for.”
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