Burnley manager Sean Dyche said the decision to sign Joe Hart despite having three first-team goalkeepers in his squad is "not rocket science."
Hart signed a two-year contract with the Clarets as he made a £3.5 million transfer from Manchester City to Turf Moor, where Nick Pope, Tom Heaton and Anders Lindergaard were already competing to be the first-choice goalkeeper.
But Dyche said he was baffled by those questioning the move to sign Hart, who he insisted made his squad more competitive following injuries to Pope and Heaton.
Hart kept a clean sheet in Burnley's Premier League draw with Southampton on Saturday, and ahead of the second leg of its Europa League qualifying match against Istanbul Basaksehir, Dyche said: "Given the situation as it came around with the injuries that we had in the goalkeeping department, I cannot understand the debate at all. It is pretty simplistic."
"[It was a] random injury to Nick Pope, the one last year to Tom [Heaton] which started off a longer process, Anders [Lindegaard] goes down with a thigh injury, it is not rocket science. The only difference is that we signed Joe and it was not a loan, but I am pleased with the business. Why would you not want a competitive unit? And all very good in my opinion."
Dyche indicated that Clarets supporters would need to wait a little longer before they get the chance to see Czech forward Matej Vydra make his full debut for the club following his £11 million move from Derby County.
The 26-year-old is lacking match fitness according to Dyche, who said: "He's catching up. He hasn't played a lot of football at Derby in the pre-season and hadn't trained with he first-team as much probably as you normally would. So he'll be playing catch-up. He managed a game in on Monday, he'll get another game the next week and training with the players."
"But like anyone, we've got to make sure there is appropriate timing, not push too hard to make sure he gets fit and into the speed of things at a good enough pace, don't get me wrong, because we need bodies at the moment, but not where he's going to break himself so we're being careful with that."
Comments
SHARE