One of Vincent Kompany’s Burnley signings admits he may be facing an uncertain future with Samuel Bastien struggling for game time at the Championship champions.
While Manuel Benson, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Ian Maatson, Nathan Tella and Jordan Beyer all played major roles in Burnley’s immediate return to the Premier League, it would be wrong to suggest that every single one of the Clarets’ 21 signings during the Kompany era have been a roaring success.
Big-money January arrival Lyle Foster has just one goal in 11 games. Darko Churlinov quickly slipped down the pecking order. Ditto Halil Dervisoglu.
Samuel Bastien, meanwhile, started just seven of Burnley’s 46 Championship matches. An £800,000 signing from Standard Liege, Bastien struggled to oust Josh Brownhill and Player of the Year Josh Cullen from Kompany’s XI, and now faces an uncertain future at a Burnley side who are likely to strengthen their squad in preparation for the Premier League.
Does Samuel Bastien have a future at Burnley?
“You never know in football,” Bastien tells Le Soir when quizzed about the prospect of leaving Turf Moor after just one, rather frustrating season.
“I will join Burnley in the summer, and then we will see what happens. Next season, we will play in the Premier League and everyone dreams of playing there.
“Maybe I will get a chance to play there.”
Then again, maybe not.
Bastien has only played 19 minutes of league football since the start of February. The one-time Chievo Verona man, who confirmed offers from Everton and Aston Villa earlier in his career before arriving in Lancashire, could be one of those who falls even further down the pecking order once Burnley get their claws into the transfer window.
Kompany, however, is playing down the prospect of a Nottingham Forest-style summer of heavy spending.
“That’s not part of the plan. It’s not for us. We also have a duty to make sure that the club doesn’t crash. Going back to the Premier League can’t be at any cost,” Kompany tells The Mirror.
“We want to be smart and find a way to have a good season. But I don’t think there is any money in the world, with the level of this league, that guarantees you anything.
“When you don’t have guarantees the worse-case scenario is that a team gets relegated. But there are ways to crash and not spiral completely into a mess. For us, we want to make sure Burnley remains a healthy club.
“I can’t speak for Forest, I’m sure they had their own reasons. But we intend to be calm. Yes, we will add new players but I can’t imagine us making all the headlines on Sky Sports on Deadline Day.
“Our key message is we have a group of players we still think can improve and rise to Premier League level.”
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