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As Christmas approached two years ago, Patrick Bamford was in the form of his life.

He'd scored in his last four successive matches for Middlesbrough, and had bagged six goals in his last seven matches.

The on-loan Chelsea forward was the talk of English football, and his 11 goals after the festive break earned him the Championship Player of the Year award.

Bamford had emerged as one of the brightest talents in English football. The Premier League beckoned - and everybody was having a look at him. And the player was making noises about staying on Teesside too.

"The prospect of staying at Boro always crosses my mind," Bamford said in January 2015.

"If we get promoted it would be a toss up between whether to go back to get experience with Chelsea and playing a bit part there or whether it will be playing week in and week out with Middlesbrough.

"Put it that way and it's an easy decision to make."

But Boro fell at the final hurdle in their promotion quest, Bamford opted for Crystal Palace, and since then everything has changed.

The player has endured frustrating loan stints at Palace, Norwich City and now Burnley, whereas Boro clinched promotion back to the Premier League at the second attempt.

Bamford will be reunited with his former teammates on Boxing Day as Aitor Karanka takes his Boro side to Turf Moor - yet the 23-year-old faces a fight just to be in the Clarets squad.

So what's happened to Bamford since leaving Teesside, and what could the future hold? We take a look.

Rejecting Boro to pursue top-flight dream

The door was always open for Bamford to stay at Boro for another season after the 2014/15 campaign, Aitor Karanka insisted, but the Spaniard knew deep down that it was never going to happen.

“I don’t think Patrick’s coming because he showed everybody that he can play in the Premier League and I am sure he has offers to play in the Premier League," Karanka said in July 2015.

"He has offers to play in other countries because he is a very good player.”

Understandably, after his impressive 19-goal haul in the second-tier, the player decided he'd proved himself in the Championship and was keen for a slice of the Premier League pie.

I don't think too many could begrudge him that. At the time, his career development trajectory was on an upward curve and a season in the top-flight was meant to propel him towards super-stardom.

Bamford had already made noises about becoming a first-choice Chelsea hitman, and he had plenty of support among sections of Blues' supporters too.

Yet his loan stint at Selhurst Park proved to be a frustrating one, with the forward managing just 119 minutes of Premier League football across six scoreless matches.

"No one wants to sit on the bench and not play," Bamford was quoted in an interview towards the end of his Palace loan.

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"I would have been more content if I had been given a chance and not taken it, but I haven’t started a game in the Premier League and, for a young player like me, that’s not what you need."

After finding himself behind Dwight Gayle, Marouane Chamakh and Connor Wickham in the Eagles' pecking order, Bamford opted to pack his bags and seek regular game-time elsewhere.

An olive branch from Norwich

His Crystal Palace hell came to an early end, and relegation-threatened Norwich took a punt on the forward during the January window as they looked to beat the drop.

Only eight months earlier, Bamford had played for Boro against the Canaries in the play-off final at Wembley - and admitted he didn't expect to be playing for the Norfolk side so soon after.

"If you had asked me that question this time last year, would I be playing for Norwich at this time, I think I probably would have thought no and said no chance,” Bamford told Norwich TV.

“But it’s funny how things change in football and it’s funny that the team I played for last year lost to Norwich in the play-off final. So it is a weird one but that’s football.”

Weird is probably the word, with Bamford again struggling to leave his mark in a Canaries team plummeting out of the top division.

After agreeing to bring Bamford to the club, Norwich boss Alex Neil suggested he would be willing to give the player a chance despite his lack of previous game-time.

“The million dollar question when you sign young players with potential is they might progress or they might stall in their development and never go beyond that level,” Neil told the Eastern Daily Press.

“Harry Kane has shown what is possible when you can develop and get better. It is not even about the right coaching, people sometimes over-emphasize that.

" You can take the horse to water but they have to show the determination and will to prove themselves. There is no reason these lads can not become top players with a little help along the way.

“Patrick has not played a lot of games and of course that is something you take into consideration but to attract strikers who have been involved in the Premier League from other clubs, if they are playing and scoring goals you are simply not going to get them.

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"So you have to delve into the ones who are not getting game-time.”

Yet it didn't work out. Bamford made just two starts in five months at the club, finding himself behind Cameron Jerome, Dieumerci Mbokani and Steven Naismith as Norwich were relegated from the Premier League.

A year had passed, yet the player - having barely kicked a ball - had seen his stock plummet.

Third time lucky at Burnley?

That was the hope, as newly-promoted Burnley took a punt on a player who had barely kicked a ball in 12 months.

"He arrived as a different option to what Burnley had," explained Chris Boden, who covers the Clarets for the Burnley Express.

"He was somebody who could play off the front, through the middle or even out wide - but it's just not worked out for him.

"He's been had a bit of bad luck in that Burnley's system has changed in the Premier League, they tend to just play the one up front - and that's always going to be either Sam Vokes or Ashley Barnes, more of a target-man type.

"Bamford has had a few minutes here and there, and he has shown his finishing technique - albeit he hasn't scored yet. But maybe he just doesn't fit into what Burnley are about.

"Sean Dyche's teams are all about graft, pressing high and keeping shape - and that technical player is sometimes the icing on the cake. But there hasn't been an opening for him."

Bamford played the final minute of Burnley's defeat at West Ham last week, his first appearance in almost two months.

Indeed, he faces an uphill battle to be even in the squad to face Boro on Boxing Day with Andre Gray, Vokes and Barnes all battling for a striking berth.

What next for Bamford?

Very little has come out of Turf Moor in terms of the player's future, but with game-time again at a premium, you'd have to think it could be another loan deal that is cut short.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was cut short at all," Boden said.

"It's just one of those things. Sometimes things just don't work out - and that may well be the case with Bamford at Burnley."

But after three loan spells at bottom-half Premier League sides, all of which appear to be coming to an unsuccessful end, what does the future hold for a player who lit up the Riverside only two seasons ago?

Once the shining light of England's up-and-coming crop, Bamford now is teetering on the brink of the footballing wilderness.

A big decision awaits in January as to what his next step is, but there certainly won't be a shortage of interested parties. This is a player who has scored goals every time he's played regular football - and plenty of Championship clubs would be willing to take a punt.

Upon leaving Boro in May 2015 after the play-off final heartache, Bamford took to Twitter in an emotional goodbye to the Teesside faithful.

"Obviously not the end of the season any of us wanted and it's gonna hurt us all for a while but I'd like to take this moment to thank everyone associated with Boro," he said.

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"You fans deserved this more than any and I'm sure next season will be yours. I've loved every minute up in the North East and appreciate the way the fans have supported me.

"It's a time of my life I'll never forget. At the minute I'm not sure what next season holds for me but I hope one day in the future I can help this club again.

"Once again, thankyou."

Fast forward two years, and Bamford remains in the same quandary - with his future very much uncertain.