One in, one out - Chris Boden's thoughts on an ultimately disappointing transfer window for Burnley

So, after all the speculation and spreading the net far and wide, Burnley ended up almost where they started the transfer window.
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Chairman Alan Pace had hoped for two or three new faces, before being caught on the hop by Newcastle United triggering Chris Wood's £25m release clause.

While Burnley's need was great, obviously given their league position, for a creative central midfielder and a wide forward, losing their main striker was an unwanted distraction, particularly as it left the club with only one fully fit senior striker in Jay Rodriguez, with Ashley Barnes working his way back to full fitness, and Matej Vydra carrying a hernia problem which will require surgery at some stage.

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Pace managed to land a replacement, and, judging by his pedigree, an upgrade, in Wout Weghorst, for half the price.

But the new number nine will have to hit the ground running for his new club, given the lack of signings joining him at Turf Moor, although he, no doubt, will be as happy as the fans to see Maxwel Cornet back in the camp in time for a massive game on Saturday against Watford.

Burnley's squad has long needed an overhaul, allowed to age by the previous ownership, as Sean Dyche continued to work his magic season on season with the same players, given a lack of financial support and willingness to stretch the budget, or look for more value with more riskier signings from the continent.

Last January, ALK Capital and Pace took the keys to the club and hoped to give Dyche what he wanted in the market, but, having only just got their feet under the table, it proved a fruitless task, as Pace said: “In the winter window I was very disappointed, because I expected we would have lots of options.

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“I understand the mechanics of the winter window, but I expected we’d have a list of 10, 15 names we were interested in, and we narrow that down.

Wout WeghorstWout Weghorst
Wout Weghorst

“It wasn’t that way. It was very disappointing.”

That was remedied to some extent in the summer, as the club enjoyed their most productive window in some time, as they landed Nathan Collins, Cornet and Connor Roberts, as well as Wayne Hennessey and Aaron Lennon.

Pace admitted then, however: "What we are doing is going to take multiple windows.

“I don’t want to mislead anybody, we will always try and make it stronger, but we are going to be doing this for a while, for a few windows, to try and get where we want to.”

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That process has been complicated as the club now find themselves in a precarious position on the pitch, after the cumulative effect of probably three years of negligence in terms of refreshing the squad - from the summer of 2018, when not enough business was done, and too late in the window, to give Dyche chance to navigate the Premier League and Europa League campaign in tandem, albeit the draws were not kind in Europe.

Pace and Dyche knew the players needed help in the winter window, but it is a tough sell when you are in a scrap for survival at the bottom of the Premier League- unless you are Newcastle and you have recently become the richest club in the world.

Dyche was asked whether it was necessary to bring players in, and he said: "Words mean nothing, it is contracts and money – that is the truth of it."

And while there was money there, even more so after the sale of Wood, the club saw a lot of hard work fall by the wayside in a frustrating month.

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Clubs either didn't wish to sell, understandably in the case of Lens and their dynamic midfielder Seko Fofana, or players didn't want to come, in the case of Aaron Ramsey, who chose to bring a difficult time at Juventus to a close by opting for the lure of a title defence with Rangers, an imminent Glasgow derby and the prospect of a Europa League tie with Borussia Dortmund.

Many fans won't care, tired of the same excuses under the old board, but the club genuinely worked hard to try and bring in some very good players.

Pace, who was instrumental in getting the Cornet deal done in the summer, travelled to Zagreb on Friday to try and tie up a deal for Dinamo's wide forward Mislav Orsic, only for a dramatic change of heart from the club and, seemingly, the player, who was previously happy to try his luck in the Premier League.

And circumstances conspired against them with other deals, one in particular which would have really captured the imagination.

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Right up to the deadline, there was the possibility of some deals being resurrected, but, ultimately, it was too late in the day to pull off, and Dyche will now have to go with what he has got for the last 20 games of the campaign.

What he has got are a group of players who have never let the club down, and will give everything for the cause - as shown in the last game, the goal-less draw at Arsenal.

Victory over Watford would be the perfect tonic and could set the tone for the second half of the season - but defeat doesn't bear thinking about.

In Dyche we trust...