Dyche not done yet after Bardsley signs in at Turf

Stoke City full back Phil Bardsley joined on a two-year deal after a move from Stoke City, in a deal worth £750,000, rising to £1.5m.

The 32-year-old arrives to provide competition at right back with Matthew Lowton, allowing Tendayi Darikwa to join hometown club Nottingham Forest for an initial £2m.

Bardsley joins Charlie Taylor, Jon Walters and Jack Cork at Turf Moor, but Dyche is still looking to make more signings, with a wide player and a third-choice goalkeeper on his shopping list.

Dyche said: “We’re still only carrying about 19 outfield wise.

“A perfect scenario is two in every position and a couple of young lads who are pushing.

“We’re nearly there, but we’re not quite there.

“We’re getting back into good shape, we’re looking at a few options and seeing if we can make them happen.”

Bardsley arrives as Burnley’s most experienced Premier League player, with 256 appearances, and, on the back of the signings of Jeff Hendrick and Robbie Brady last season - both 25 - and Taylor this, at 23, Dyche is happy with the balance of his squad: “The perfect scenario is to have a mixture. Charlie has come in at a younger age, I thought he was good at Preston on Tuesday night, there’s more development in him.

“We’ve got that bit more experience about the group with Jon and Phil coining in, we’ve still got players adapting like Andre (Gray) and Jeff.

“There’s a healthy mixture at the minute. Kevin Long looked nice and solid at Preston. Tarky (James Tarkowski) has a hip, nothing too major, we hope over this week he’ll be ready again.

“You need a team and a squad that can handle the Premier League, but the bigger picture of the club needs addressing as well, can we find that right balance?

“Are we still developing players, but have we still got the experience level that can rub off on the younger players?”

Darikwa is likely to make his Forest debut against the Clarets at the City Ground on Saturday, while Dyche will make a check on Bardsley’s level of fitness and assess whether it is appropriate for him to feaure or not.

Dyche said: “We’ll see, we’ve got to assess where his true fitness is.

“We always believe in making sure the players are ready to play, rather than using the games to get them ready to play.”

He will make changes from the side which started the 2-1 win at Preston on Tuesday night: “We want another good test. The competitive nature of sides, with Preston it’s their sixth game and they’re still working and still at it, Forest will be the same, they’re trying to lay down markers for their manager, they’re in advance of it so it’s another important game for us.

“We will flip the team again, so some of the players who started on Tuesday won’t start.”