What behind-the-scenes changes are happening at Turf Moor ahead of Burnley's Premier League return?

Vincent Kompany’s men don’t return to competitive action until August 11, when they kick off the Premier League season with a home game against reigning champions Manchester City.

But there’s a lot of work to be done to get the ground top flight-ready.

BBC Radio Lancashire caught up with Doug Metcalfe, head of operations, to find out what work was going on behind the scenes.

Here’s some of the key highlights:

Summer work

“It’s a busy place, there’s no question about it. But a good place because it only seems a short while since we finished the Championship season.

“You don’t have an opportunity to just sit back and enjoy it, we’ve got a lot of work to do before we hit the ground running for what is a great game to start with.

“We’ve got a short window to put a lot of work in but I guess we’re in a reasonable state now because we’ve only been out of the Premier League for one season, which is an advantage when it comes to the Premier League rulebook.

“It has changed since we’ve been out, so we’ve got to do a bit of work to comply with what they need us to do and that’s primarily broadcaster requirements, which is moving at pace, because the broadcaster’s are demanding more and hence the Premier League demands more from us.

“There is a lot of work going on around the ground, little pieces you don’t always see, but a lot of those things go on behind the scenes to make sure we present ourselves as good as we can.”

Seats missing from lower tier of James Hargreaves Stand

“We’re actually having to dismantle part of the stand to get into the stand safely. We’ve had to take out the seats and we’ve had to take out the pre-cast concrete slabs.

“People still refer to these stands as ‘new stands’ but they’re 28 years old now and like anything, over time, they deteriorate and need maintenance, so it is part of a maintenance project to ensure we have another 28 years of usage out of these stands.”

Are Burnley looking at safe standing?

“Yes, absolutely. It’s on the agenda for all football clubs.

“We’ve got to a point now where there’s been a lot of good research, a lot of examples of good practice now.

“As a club we’ve been cautious, we’ve sat back and watched the first few clubs have a look at it and take the best practice from it and work out what’s worked and what hasn’t.

“But yes, we’re definitely looking at safe standing. We’ll be consulting supporters about this very shortly on their opinions, where it should be, how it should be deployed and who should be there.

“That’s really important to ensure we get the buy-in for this particular piece of work because it’s sensitive, but it’s an important piece for football and its future and it will be coming to Turf Moor soon.”

Players’ entrance

“We’re uplifting the players’ entrance. We’re putting in a nice entrance way through the doorway, there’s a canopy going in and there will be a stairway, rather than just coming into an open platform.

“There’s a bit of work, but it’s not massively different.

“We’ve got to manage it a bit better with what the Premier League need. You need certain areas so we’re just carving it up into manageable spaces.”

Press facilities

“We’re just trying to make this area more operationally appropriate and Premier League ready.

“It’s our main entrance, our players’ entrance and media entrance, so it gets really busy on matchday and we just wanted to uplift the area so it’s appropriate for who we’re staging and who we are and where we’re moving to.

“When players get off the coach and arrive themselves, they’re coming into an entrance they feel proud of.

“The walkway through is going to be a multi-purpose area, so it will almost be a mixed zone for press.

“We’re just trying to get the best out of the area and make the environment as best quality as we can.”