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The season’s over apart from those clubs set for the play-off finals this weekend and that means the speculation is well underway as to which players might be moving on and who we might be signing.

Much of the chat so far has been about the goalkeepers, right-backs and central defenders but, as always, it is difficult to ascertain whether it is just pure speculation or whether there might be something in it.

1718 burnley anders lindegaard 02 500x500The goalkeeping situation at Burnley has been a talking point throughout the season with us having three England internationals in the squad. All three of them played during the season although Nick Pope featured only in the FA Cup apart from those early minutes in the Europa League at Aberdeen. Anders Lindegaard played most of the two games against the Scottish club while Adam Legzdins was used exclusively in the under-23 side.

Back in December, we all thought club captain would be the first of those goalkeepers to depart. He wasn’t in the team and spoke about his need to play. A January move for him wouldn’t have been a surprise but his return to the first team brought that to an end and he now looks the least likely of our goalkeepers to depart.

Lindegaard (pictured right) has already gone; he’s been released after two years at the club, and there remains plenty of speculation regarding both Joe Hart, who played the first half of the season, and Pope. Hart has been linked with any number of clubs, both at home and even with MLS clubs although there seems to be some strong hints that he could go to Birmingham where he spent the 2009/10 season on loan. Pope, meanwhile, is attracting interest with Bournemouth, who are a side clearly not as blessed as we are with goalkeepers, linked with a £15 million move for him.

You wouldn’t think, given the number of goalkeepers on the books, that we’d be linked with anyone else’s but it’s not been the case with suggestions we could look at Derby’s Scott Carson as cover. Replaced by Kelle Roos, the 33-year-old can boast having played Premier League football for a number of clubs whilst winning international caps. He’ll be on the Wembley bench next Monday as sub goalkeeper for Derby.

On the subject of Derby, we were linked with a move for their right-back Jayden Bogle (pictured below) in January and that link hasn’t gone away. With Phil Bardsley staying for at least another year a right-back isn’t a priority but it does look as though we are looking to find a player for that position given we’ve also been linked with loan moves for Chelsea’s Reece James, who has just enjoyed a loan season at Wigan, and Everton’s Jonjoe Kenny. However, with Stephen Ward having gone, it is likely that a left-back will come into the squad to challenge Charlie Taylor.

We spent the entire 2017/18 season a central defender short before signing Ben Gibson last summer. It’s not been the best first season at Burnley for the former Middlesbrough player who twice had surgery and played only one league game for us, and that the horrible Boxing Day defeat against Everton.

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James Tarkowski might prove to be the key to any changes in that position. Harry Maguire is expected to leave Leicester for one of the two Manchester clubs, City becoming the most likely with Vincent Kompany’s departure. There have been strong suggestions that Leicester would then target Tarky as his replacement so no surprise to see links with an additional central defender coming in and they couldn’t be much easier to have worked out. The two at the front of the queue appear to be Gary Cahill, fondly remembered by Burnley fans for his loan season 14 years ago, and West Brom’s Craig Dawson who is a perennial link. Dawson has become the modern day Andrew Driver in that I’ve written any number of articles in readiness for his signing.

Some of that speculation might be close to what could happen, some of it will definitely be wide of the mark but rest assured there will be a lot more of it before the transfer window closes a couple of days before the season gets underway.

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