Swansea defender Joel Latibeaudiere remains of interest to Burnley but they are also shifting their attention to other defenders elsewhere in the English Football League. Over the past two days we were advised that the swans were best not to drag their feet on any offers with the turf moor club making bids for defenders this weekend.

Latibeaudiere is one of six defensive players the clarets are tracking, and despite the clubs current financial situation they do have finances to bring in more players for a quick return to the premier league. No bid as yet has been made for Joel but agent talk is that inquiries regards availability have been made. Whether that is tentatively or not we will surely find out over the coming days.

Other outlets are reporting firm interest.

The Clarets have seen long-serving defenders James Tarkowski and Ben Mee depart Turf Moor already this summer And those holes need plugging.

Burnley are the most unfancied of the relegated teams from the premier league to make an instant return and see their defence as key to making a challenge this season. So much so they have made three bids over the past few days for Oxford United defender Luke McNally. The twenty two year old is keen to move to an established club in the championship as he pushes for full international recognition with the Republic of Ireland. A one and a half million pound bid was turned down for the U’s player on Saturday suggesting Joel’s price is negotiable with Burnley, but new manager Vincent Kompany is keen to settle his squad quickly this pre season.

Kompany has already indicated his transfer strategy for Burnley this season and Joel Latibeaudiere most certainly fits his criteria. Talking on Thursday he said, “There’s opportunities of bringing new players into the group who could help us already, maybe getting closer to this idea we have about where we want to go with the Club. That’s why I’m saying it’s a busy time, there’s a lot of uncertainty but it’s also an exciting time because there’s a lot of opportunity and we’re going for the second, which is the opportunities which we see in this moment. You borrow as a last resort, if you don’t have the funds available to bring in the quality that you want, if there’s a position where you have an immediate need to bring in a player to help you, so borrowing is something you do in the last resort. I think our main idea is to see if we can find players who are willing to stay longer at the Club to develop them as well because the budgets we’re in will not allow us to probably bring in the seasoned guys”

Clubs are seemingly determined to get as much business done as possible and we believe that could see a few more bids in for Swansea City players in the coming week or two with Portsmouth still keen on Morgan Whittaker and Liam Cullen.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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