Ahead of their Monday night match against Nottingham Forest, Vincent Kompany knows his Burnley side are only off the bottom of the Premier League table by virtue of having scored one more goal than Luton – despite having an identical goal difference to the Hatters.
It’s not been the best of starts for the Clarets since their promotion back to the English top-flight, with Man City, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur all putting at least three goals past them.
Unless Kompany wants to oversee a long, hard season for his team, then things need to change quickly, starting with the game against Forest.
One player that won’t be turning out for Burnley is Sergio Reguilon.
According to an exclusive interview that the club’s chief operating officer, Matt Williams, gave to talkSPORT, the Spanish left-back was offered to the club a few days before he eventually signed on loan at Man United.
“Luke Shaw goes down injured and they take a player from Tottenham who we’d been offered three or four days earlier,” Williams said.
“It was a business decision that we didn’t sign him – salaries, loan fees etc.”
Clearly, Kompany also didn’t see anything in Reguilon’s game that he thought would improve his side, and one could argue that the Red Devils have only taken a chance on him because of their desperation at not having Luke Shaw and a ready-made replacement available.
Given their start, the Clarets might rue making that decision though Kompany deserves to be backed, win, lose or draw.
Read Next:
Vincent Kompany on Nottingham Forest test, cup win & turnover of players under Steve Cooper
The Clarets have already overcome Steve Cooper’s side at the City Ground, having emerged 1-0 winners in their Carabao Cup second round tie at the end of August.
Both sides made wholesale changes, 10 in Burnley’s case and seven for Forest, while both sides have since made further additions during the final days of the summer transfer window.
Zeki Amdouni, a regular starter so far this season, was initially rested but came off the bench to score a dramatic late winner to set up a third round tie with League Two side Salford City.
When asked if the cup win will have any say on Monday’s league clash, Kompany said: “It did until they got seven players in on deadline day, so I don’t know!
“But that game is done and this is a new one now.
While Burnley were busy this summer, making 15 new signings, that pales into comparison with the 40+ additions Forest have made over the past three transfer windows.
“My first question to Steve Cooper would be how to manage the dressing room. As a coach that’s what we’re all concerned with when you make that many changes,” Kompany added.
“In the end, the realisation the gap between the Premier League and any other league, but especially the Championship, is such a big gap to close that teams are having to make huge financial efforts to remain in that division.
“It’s a high stakes table, but there’s no amount of money you can spend to guarantee yourself a seat at that table so there still has to be a plan behind it and an idea of how you develop your team and squad and what you expect from them.
Leave a Reply