The 2022-23 domestic campaign may only have finished last weekend with the Champions League final, yet already preparations are in full swing at Burnley ahead of the next season.
Vincent Kompany's players are back in pre-season training, with the Clarets taking full advantage of the fact their own season finished five weeks ago.
Having clinched automatic promotion to the Premier League in style, Burnley could now do with adding some more additions to an already talented squad that has been transformed under Kompany.
Who are Burnley looking to sign this summer?
Burnley have yet to bring in any new additions this summer, but they have been linked with a whole array of players, including the likes of Che Adams, Bart Verbruggen and Jack Clarke among others.
Another new name touted as a target for Burnley is Almeria striker El Bilal Toure, who impressed in LaLiga after also doing likewise in Ligue 1 with Reims.
According to Football Insider, Burnley and Bournemouth are leading other Premier League rivals in the race to sign the Mali international, with a bid of £20m said to be enough to persuade Almeria to cash in.
Would Almeria striker El Bilal Toure be an upgrade for Burnley?
Toure averaged exactly one goal every three games for Almeria in LaLiga last season – seven goals in 21 appearances – including the winning goal against Barcelona to help his side claim their first ever victory in that fixture.
The 21-year-old arrived at the Spanish side last year in an €8m (£6.84m) move from Reims, where his performances earned him the tag of being a "major talent" by football reporter Graeme Bailey.
To give a clearer indication of what Toure's game is all about, FBref ranks Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins – a man more familiar to Premier League viewers – as the closest match among players across Europe's top five leagues.
The Malian ranks in the top 24% of all players across those elite divisions for non-penalty goals per 90 minutes (0.46) in the past 12 months, though that figure will only increase on the basis of his end to the 2022-23 season.
Indeed, with three goals in his final six appearances, including that strike against Barcelona, Toure effectively helped keep Almeria in the Spanish top flight for another year.
That will also be his task at Burnley, much in the same way as Chris Wood stepped up during the Clarets' previous stay in the Premier League. Wood, the Clarets' record scorer in the division (46 goals), netted double figures in all four of his full campaigns for the club at that level.
Comparing Wood's final full season with Burnley in 2020-21 and Toure's 2022-23 season makes for interesting reading. Wood averaged 0.39 goals per 90 minutes and 0.10 assists, as per FBref, compared to 0.46 and 0.13 respectively for Toure.
Those goals came from a pretty much identical expected goals (xG) return of 0.42 for Toure and 0.43 for Wood – who is now at Nottingham Forest – suggesting the former is more clinical when chances fall his way.
There is next to nothing between the pair in terms of passes completed in those two seasons (13.2 for Toure, 13.9 for Wood) and tackles won (0.20 v 0.23). Perhaps more tellingly, Toure also won more aerial duels last season (47.5%) than Wood did in 2020-21 (44.2%).
Burnley's playing style may have changed since their last spell in the Premier League, but sometimes you just need a player like Wood up top in your time of need. In Toure, the Clarets can sign exactly that man.