Former Newcastle Untied star Jonjo Shelvey signs for Burnley - Can he keep Sunderland in the Championship?

Former Newcastle United midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has returned to English football after a spell in Turkey and has joined Burnley until the end of the season.

Jonjo Shelvey will team up with another ex-Magpie as Burnley is currently managed by former Newcastle United midfielder and proud holder of the Intertoto Certificate of Joy, Scott Parker.

Shelvey has been training with Burnley for a couple of weeks and Parker has opted to sign the former England midfielder on a short-term basis with the club teasing his arrival on X with a brilliant send=up of the BBC One hit series The Traitors.

Burnley are in direct competition with Sunderland for an automatic promotion spot back to the Premier League.

Jonjo Shelvey's career hasn't exactly gone to plan since leaving Newcastle

Shelvey left Newcastle United in January 2023 for Nottingham Forest after an eight-year spell on Tyneside. His Forest spell didn't go as planned and in the summer he moved to Turkish side Çaykur Rizespor.

A year later he moved again, staying in Turkey but moving to Eyupspor who released the midfielder this month before he joined up with Burnley.

Scott Parker has taken quite the risk on Shelvey but seems confident that the former Liverpool man can still do the job for him at 32 years old.

You know what you've got to do, Jonjo

We're sure that the incentive of getting one over on Sunderland as an ex-Mag will be more than enough to drive Shelvey on to do his best for Burnley.

Of course, should Shelvey help Burnley to promotion, that might make Newcastle's task of landing their goalkeeper, James Trafford even harder in the summer, but would we rather have to pay a couple of extra quid for a goalkeeper and see Sunderland remain in the Championship than the alternative? Of course.

Is that the most petty thing I've ever written? Possibly. Do I care? Not at all.