Burnley swooped to sign Manchester United winger Chris Eagles in July 2008.

The 22-year-old youngster signed a three- year deal at Turf Moor for an undisclosed fee after finding first team appearances hard to come by in Sir Alex Ferguson's star-studded squad.

And the skilful winger played an important role in the Clarets promotion to the Premier League, making a total of forty-one appearances throughout the season scoring seven goals.

It was the Lancashire derby with Preston in September when Eagles opened his Clarets account, scoring the third in a 3-1 victory. He then bagged a crucial goal away to high flying Sheffield United in December to send Burnley back across the Pennines with a 3-2 victory. A consolation goal in the 4-2 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday was to be Eagles' last goal of the season.

Eagles made just two Premier league starts with United, scoring his only top flight goal against Everton in April 2007 and making his first Premier League start a month later at Chelsea.

Born in Hemel Hempsted, Eagles progressed through the youth ranks at Watford before joining United's Academy aged 14.

He made his United debut as a substitute against Leeds United in October 2003 and later that year again deputised as a sub for upcoming star Cristiano Ronaldo in another League Cup tie.

In August 2004, he made his Champions League debut in a qualifying game against Dinamo Bucharest at Old Trafford.

However, he only started two more games - a League Cup quarter final v Arsenal and the FA Cup third round tie at home to Exeter City - before being loaned back to Watford in the 2005 January window, where he made 13 appearances and scored one goal.

The following summer, Eagles again found himself on loan, this time at Sheffield Wednesday where he spent six months and scored three goals in 25 appearances.

The second half of that campaign was again spent at Vicarage Road, gaining more valuable experience by playing a further 19 times and earning the Hornets goal of the season award with an audacious 50-yard effort at Brighton.

At the start of the 2006/07 season, United loaned the midfielder out to Dutch Eridivisie side NEC Nijmejen, but he returned to Old Trafford in December following just 11 appearances - mostly as a substitute.

After spending almost two years away from Old Trafford, Eagles started to forge his way into the first-team reckoning in the run-in to the 2006/07 title.

And he finally got his name on the score sheet on his Premier League debut as a late substitute for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the thrilling 4-2 comeback victory at Goodison Park.

After making his first league start at Chelsea soon afterwards, the maturing midfielder had high hopes of stepping up his career in the 2007/08 campaign.

However, despite a handful of substitute appearances, he started just one league game against Sunderland in September and one Champions League group game in Rome.

However, he continued to prove his worth for United's reserves, where he scored nine goals in 16 appearances.