The Wanderers are now halfway through pre-season – they’re back from a successful trip to USA and this weekend saw a solid 4-1 victory against Bradford City. The next few weeks brings the remainder of the pre-season fixture list, continuing with Bury in midweek, and leads into the start of the new season on the 13th of August against QPR.

As the action on the pitch has started to hot up, so too has the movement in the transfer market and there are several new players to report about. Most notably, the Burnley FC official website has confirmed that a combined bid of £3million has been accepted for Chris Eagles and Tyrone Mears. Both players were brought to the club by Owen Coyle during his time with the Clarets and were entering the final year of their respective contracts. There has been no announcement from the club at our end but it appears that save for the pending medicals and personal contract terms, the pair look certain to join the Whites in the coming days.

Having regard to some of the fans forums there is some division over both of these players and it’s not too difficult to see why. Both of have been passed from pillar to post by clubs and neither have enjoyed a sustained period of playing topflight English football. That being said, some comfort can be found in their connection to the manager, the relative inexpensive of the transfer and that at last there will be some new fresh faces to add to our ever diminishing squad.

The sale of Matty Taylor has made the need for new players all the more pressing after he moved to West Ham this last week for an estimated £2.5million. In many ways Eagles is likely to be seen as his replacement and his younger, quicker and more skilful style might lend an extra certain something to competition for a place on either flank. Taylor’s pace had started to let him down and those left-footed specials did not materialise last year. It will be interesting to see how he gets on in the Championship. As a bonus his transfer fee will cover the majority the £3million fee for Mears and Eagles.

Nigel Reo-Coker is another name being thrown into the mix by a number of sources with many stating that the free agent has ventured up the M6 to have talks. On the fact of it that looks like another decent bit of business; a free transfer and experienced Premiership player. Interestingly enough though, now that we have Darren Pratley, who has looked extremely impressive in pre-season, there could be an argument that there is no real place in the team for Nigel and that we should be looking to other areas of the pitch to strengthen.

One such pressing concern is the need for a new striker – Elmander has gone, Ward has been sold and Sturridge and Rodrigo have returned to their parent clubs. All has gone quiet on the Jeffren front with no further reports in the press about the Barcelona attacker. Worryingly a newly rumoured target has emerged in the name of David N’Gog. The young Frenchman has been deemed surplus to requirements at Liverpool and King Kenny is keen to cash in on a number of players that are outside of his plans. Liverpool are said to have fixed a £6million price for N’gog and we’re supposedly sniffing around. Personally, I have never rated him at this level and fancy that at that price he would be a big gamble. Although he is only 22, 6ft 3 and has absolutely bags of pace – so there could be some hope for him under the guidance of St Owen. I just don’t think he’ll score enough goals. I certainly wouldn’t object to a loan deal but I would prefer that we explored other areas before parting with £6million for what could turn into Elmander Part Deux.