Burnley Fan View: Nkoudou signs - but who else will follow?

Burnley completed the surprise signing of Georges-Kevin Nkoudou on loan this Tuesday afternoon from Tottenham Hotspur, but there are still needs within the squad that are hopefully filled this January.

Firstly, I think Nkoudou is an inspired signing. We desperately needed both pace and width and he offers both. I haven’t seen much of him myself and he has been used sparingly for Spurs this season, but he has been rated highly by Spurs fans I know. Both footed and with an eye for goal, we are hopeful he can recapture the form that persuaded Spurs to part with 11m Euros to bring him to White Hart Lane 18 months ago.

Our next position of need for me is centre half. Not that I want to replace either of Tarkowski or Mee, but we need to look to the future. Whilst Kevin Long has put in some performances that have cemented his place as a solid backup, we need a young player to push all three of them on and develop – just as Keane replaced Duff and Tarkowski replaced Keane.

Tarkoswki was rumoured to be leaving this window but he signed a four-and-a-half year deal last week to quash the speculation, undoubtedly our best signing of the window.

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A few options have already been mentioned, some are old stories from Summer resurfacing and some are new names.

Jozo Simunovic was mentioned in the summer but Celtic weren’t keen to let him leave with the Champions League campaign about to begin. Now that they are in the Europa League they may be more willing to part with him, but I think he might have to force the issue. At just 23 he is one for the future but would have to be patient and wait his turn to start for the Clarets on a regular basis. The figure quoted is around £8m which is frankly peanuts at the moment. I never thought i’d say that, but there you go.

Nottingham Forest centre half Joe Worral is a second name that is on our radar, if paper talk is to be believed. The 20 year old has made 28 appearances for Forest this season, including a good display against Arsenal in their recent FA Cup triumph. He is being touted nearer the £12m mark but I can imagine new manager Aitor Karanka would be happy to disappoint Dyche given their spat 2 seasons ago when Karanka was managing Middlesbrough. His pedigree for England under 21s and the fact he has so much experience already is appealing, but i wouldn’t want his progress to be stalled by sitting on our bench. A loan back option might be suitable for the rest of the season.

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It’s an exciting time to be a Claret that’s for sure, hopefully we can bolster our back line before the window is through.