Erik Pieters played five years of Premier League football for Stoke City and now he is heading back to the top flight with Sean Dyche’s Burnley.

Erik Pieters is set to become Burnley’s first signing of the summer as the long-serving Stoke City defender edges closer to a bargain move to Turf Moor, according to the Mail.
It has been a frustrating few weeks for the Clarets faithful with Sean Dyche yet to reinforce a side that finished just six points above the Premier League relegation zone last season.
And their long-awaited first signing of the window is not going to be a skilful number ten or a prolific centre-forward. But that does not mean that the fans should turn their noses up at an experienced left-back with 190 top flight appearances to his name.
According to the Mail, 18-time Dutch international Pieters is ‘on the brink’ of leaving Stoke after six years in the Potteries and he is set to sign for Burnley, where he will replace Stephen Ward and look to compete with Charlie Taylor in Dyche’s starting XI.

This comes after he was one of the eight players left out of Stoke’s pre-season training camp in the Netherlands. Sky claim that manager Nathan Jones also omitted the likes of Moritz Bauer, Gianelli Imbula, Kevin Wimmer and Bojan with the former Luton boss making Pieters’ future painfully clear.
Stoke paid £3 million to sign Pieters from PSV Eindhoven in 2013, as reported by the BBC.

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