Burnley's wild £161m summer transfer window predicted with Newcastle, Everton and Udinese deals

Scott Parker has enjoyed a highly promising start to his reign at Burnley after his side took maximum points from their first two games of the Championship season.

The former Chelsea and England midfielder was named as successor to Vincent Kompany last month after he accepted an offer to take charge at Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. Parker has wasted little time in making an impact at Turf Moor and has been extremely active in the summer transfer window and the fruits of his labour have shown during the opening week of the new season.

Parker’s side claimed a highly impressive 4-1 win at Luton Town on the opening night of the season before romping to a 5-0 demolition of Cardiff City on Saturday afternoon to sit at the top of the early Championship table. More new signings are likely to be made over the next ten days as the former Fulham manager looks to guide the Clarets back into the top tier at the first time of asking. But what business could he conduct? We fired up Football Manager 2024 to see how the world’s most popular managerial simulation believes the remainder of the summer transfer window could play out at Turf Moor.

Goalkeepers

There were no new changes to the Clarets goalkeeping ranks as they saw off interest from a number of Premier League clubs to retain the services of England Under-21 star James Trafford.

Parker’s goalkeeping options: Trafford, Green, Hladky.

Defenders

There were several departures from the defensive ranks as Dara O’Shea made a strange season-long loan move to Southampton, CJ Egan-Riley joined Wrexham in a similar move, Vitinho moved on loan to Fiorentina and Connor Roberts joined Crystal Palace in a deal worth £4.3m. Two new arrivals were secured as Newcastle United full-back Matt Targett and Mallorca’s Pablo Maffeo at a combined cost of around £13m.

Parker’s defensive options: Sambo, Pires, McNally, Delcroix, Ekdal, Al-Dakhail, Beyer, Targett, Maffeo.

Midfield

There was a big sale in midfield as Crystal Palace won the race to sign Sander Berge in a £21m deal and he was joined through the exit door by Han-Noah Massengo, who moved on a season-long loan to Middlesbrough. There was two new signings in the middle of the park as Claudio Gomes joined from Serie B side Palermo in a £6m deal and £4m was enough to secure the services of Udinese star Sandi Lovric.

Parker’s midfield options: Ramsey, Brownhill, Cullen, Gomes, Lovric.

Forwards

Where to start here? A flurry of deals gave a fresh look to Scott Parker’s attacking options - or at least saw something of a clearout at the top end of the pitch. Lyle Foster, Nathan Redmond, Michael Obademi, Wout Weghorst, Benson Manuel and Anass Zaroury all ventured to pastures new in a combination of loan and permanent deals that netted the Clarets a combined income of around £28m.

There were two new arrivals and the most costly came as Burnley saw off the challenge of a number of Premier League clubs to land Plymouth Argyle star Morgan Whittaker in a £21m deal. He was joined by Everton forward Youssef Chermiti, who was secured for a rather more modest £4m.

Parker’s forward options: Rodriguez, Hountondji, Amdouni, Gudmundsson, Koleosho, Tresor, Chermiti, Whittaker.

Ins

Tresor (£14m from Genk), Esteve (£9m from Montpellier), Hountondji (£2.75m from Caen), Pires (£1.4m from Santos), Sambo (free from PSV), Hladky (free from Ipswich Town), Green (undisclosed from Saint-Etienne), Targett (£6m from Newcastle), Chermiti (£4m from Everton), Maffeo (£7m from Mallorca), Gomes (£6m from Palermo), Lovric (£4m from Udinese), Whittaker (£21m from Plymouth Argyle)

Outs

Odobert (£24m to Spurs), Muric (£6m to Burnley), Twine (£2.5m to Bristol City), Peacock-Farrell (400k to Birmingham City), Bastien (£200k to Fortuna Sittard), Taylor (free to Southampton), Virgoroux (undisclosed to Swansea City), Churlinov (loan to Jagiellonia), Costelloe (loan to Accrington Stanley), Cork (released), Benson (£5m to Lens), Massengo (loan to Middlesbrough), Redmond (£500k to West Brom), O’Shea (loan to Southampton), Roberts (£4.3m to Crystal Palace), Egan-Riley (loan to Wrexham), Foster (loan to Mainz), Obafemi (loan to QPR), Vitinho (loan to Fiorentina), Berge (£21m to Crystal Palace), Zaroury (£16m to Lyon), Weghorst (£6m to Feyenoord)