One of Brendan Flood’s roles as Operational Director is to try and seal deals for Eddie Howe’s transfer targets.
So under mounting criticism from the fans after the Fox debacle, he has clearly been trying to allay fears that this club might not be competitive ehough this season having lost so many squad players.
Nine players have since left including some high-quality players like Eagles, Mears and Fox and of course we also failed to sign Jack Cork on a permanent deal.
True we have brought in Keith Treacy from Preston and it looks like also we will soon have Danny Ings from Bournemouth. The squad has also been supplemented by two season-long loans from Manchester City with defenders, Mee and Trippier arriving in the summer.
However, that still leaves us five short on last season ( not counting third-string keeper, Jon Stewart who signed a one-year deal) so what does the club intend to do about it?
Well Flood revealed he is hoping to put the smile back on the fans faces and hopefully Eddie Howe’s after reports he was clearly unhappy about the transfer of Danny Fox to Southampton.
He has hinted today that Eddie Howe could have four new signings by the time the transfer window closes at the end of August although of course that may already include Cherries striker, Danny Ings who will be at Turf Moor on Monday to discuss personal terms after both clubs agreed an undisclosed fee for his transfer today (Saturday 13th August)
Ings certainly looks to be one of the two signings that Flood hopes to have in by the end of next week.
“We want to strengthen up front because of Martin`s injury,” said Flood
“We hope by the middle of next week to have a few new names in the frame.
“We are definitely supportive of (Howe) financially.
“While it`s important that we are complying with the medium-term strategy to adjust to the financial fairplay rules – we would be negligent not to – with what we have achieved with the recent player trading it gives an opportunity to shape the team around Eddie.
“We are looking to bring up to four players in before the end of the window.
“Ideally they would all be permanent signings because they are all great prospects that we are aiming for.
‘We just have to wait and see what we can agree.”
He went on to say:
“We have sought to get a group together who we can build a team around and we would expect to enhance the squad over the next couple of weeks.
“We know who we want and we will fully support the manager to get them.
“There`s an element of planning gone into where we are and we just ask the fans to be patient.
“We want to develop the plan we`ve had in place through the summer.”
That plan includes maintaining their push for a top six Championship finish, despite the player turnover.
“We will try to get to the play-offs this season,” said Flood.
“We`ve not had to re-assess targets.
“I think the quality of the squad we will have – although there are a lot of faces that have changed – we need to give Eddie the opportunity to make it his team.”
Vital Burnley wish to thank Burnley FC for the use of the photograph of Brendan Flood.
Share this article
