Burnley have made their first signing of the summer in the form of Republic of Ireland Under 21s defender, Nathan Collins.

Collins arrives at Turf Moor from Stoke City for an undisclosed fee, as The Clarets look to improve on last season’s somewhat disappointing 17th placed finish.

A Premier League disrupted by a catalogue of injuries highlighted the need for depth this summer and the ever-increasing need for the chairman, Alan Pace, to follow through on his promise of supporting the team financially this summer.

  • Statement of intent from Burnley

The club haven’t had a remarkable time of it in the transfer market as of late so it is refreshing to see a significant move made so early on.

Sean Dyche has been crying out for more players, even if he hasn’t said it directly, and Collins’ arrival is a brilliant move to increase the depth of his threadbare squad.

Not only is the quick nature of the move and what it means for the squad size important, but the number of teams also interested in The Potters man was sizeable to say the least.

Clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester United have reportedly been interested in Collins, so it is somewhat of a coup for Burnley to pull this signing off.

It is a signing for the future, as it would be improbable he dislodges the ever present pairing of James Tarkowski and Ben Mee.

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However, the latter isn’t getting any younger and the former is out of contract next summer, seemingly on his way out of the club for nothing.

Unless the club sell Tarkowski this summer, with the reported interest in him not going away, he will walk out at the end of his current deal, so Collins could make a few starts towards the end of the season to get him ready for the next campaign.

  • Pace has come through on his promise already, but don’t get too excited just yet

It is a fantastic start to rectifying what went wrong last season.

Jimmy Dunne is on his way out of the club, Tarkowski will leave either this summer or next, Mee is getting on a bit now and that showed at times last season while Kevin Long has had injury troubles in the past year.

To get carried away would be naïve, though.

It is too early to be praising the chairman for this arrival because one new player will not improve the depth of the squad enough.

It is a shrewd move by Mr Pace, there is no mistaking that, but he needs to fulfil his promise of investment in the playing squad with more arrivals.

Another centre back – Nat Phillips of Liverpool potentially – is needed for the cover and the future, more wide players following Robbie Brady’s exit and a new back-up goalkeeper would constitute a successful summer at Turf Moor.

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There is plenty of time to achieve this and more, so let’s revisit this in September when the window closes and assess what degree of success has been reached in Mr Pace’s first summer market.

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