Vincent Kompany closing in on first Burnley signings

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Vincent Kompany is closing in on his first Burnley signings.

The club have agreed fees with Arsenal for centre back Dan Ballard and MK Dons with forward Scott Twine, while Manchester City defenders Taylor Harwood-Bellis and CJ Egan-Riley are on the brink of securing moves to Turf Moor.

While nothing was confirmed at Kompany’s first press conference since being appointed, the Belgian admitted: "I can tell you we're close to bringing in a few players, but until the medicals have been finalised and contracts signed, there's nobody we're bringing in officially today, I think, but in general we're close to players and we're set up a few medicals, and hopefully in the next 24-48 hours we can start making the first announcements.”

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Arrivals are much needed, given the departures over the summer, with Nick Pope the latest to leave, joining Newcastle for £12m on Thursday, and Kompany accepted: "I think it goes with the drop in revenues when you drop out of the Premier League, you always have to expect some of your valuable players need to move on, not because it's good for them, but also for the club.

Vincent KompanyVincent Kompany
Vincent Kompany

"But it's a team with some experienced players, some depth in quality as well, certainly for the Championship, a few players that also earned the right to move on, and we wish them well, and we're looking forward to bringing some exciting players in.”

Kompany has already explained he will be looking more at younger players, with his budget, saying last week: "I think our main idea is to see if we can find players who are willing to stay longer, to develop them as well, because the budgets we're in will not allow us to probably bring in the seasoned guys, but we want to bring in players who are able to commit for a longer period to the club and maybe create and add value to the club when other teams come and take them from us.”

And he insists there isn’t a need to sell to buy: "Not necessarily, I think there are still a few players who attract interest so it's no secret we expect that something will maybe have to happen there, but there's no rush, we've been able to negotiate and we're hopefully close to completing on a couple of players.

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"There's a reality of the squad, it's experienced, and if we are to turn a financial corner, it's important to have balance, a mix of players who grow in value, exciting players, and players who hold the culture together, what has made Burnley special over the years.”

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