Vincent Kompany explains why Burnley have so many wingers on their books

The Clarets already had Manuel Benson, Anass Zaroury, Johann Gudmundsson and Darko Churlinov on their books from last season.

But that didn’t stop Burnley from bringing in a further five during the summer in Luca Koleosho, Wilson Odobert, Mike Tresor, Jacob Bruun Larsen and Nathan Redmond.

Last season’s loan star Nathan Tella was also sought after, but opted to sign for German side Leverkusen instead.

Having recently been quizzed about why Burnley have so many wide men in their squad, Kompany claimed it was nothing “revolutionary” and is fairly common among clubs in the top flight.

“You can class them as wingers, but it’s the versatility that is important,” he explained.

“But I don’t think we’re doing anything revolutionary, if you look at most squads of Premier League teams most have got this.

“I don’t know whether it’s us recruiting for that or whether players are being educated like this more through the academy and the youth systems, but a lot of players are more comfortable playing in one, two, three or four positions.

“It’s important because this season we thought we might need Gudmundsson a little bit more central, then you need him a little bit more wide.

"There’s always that combination of what your task is defensively and what you need to do on the ball. Players that can be a bit more versatile, they help a lot with that.”