Burnley boss Vincent Kompany not giving up on deal for Sporting Lisbon winger Jovane Cabral

Asked at the weekend if any deals had been finalized, Kompany said: “There’s still a lot to do but until the ink is dry on the paper… we’re confident and hopefully we can strengthen the squad again next week.”

And there were hints in Portugal that the Clarets had agreed a €4m plus €1m fee for 24-year-old Calle Verde international Cabral and that it was up to the player to decide his future.

For now, however, nothing seems to be moving on that transfer as a striker who spent the second half of last season on loan at Lazio in Serie A didn’t exercise his purchase option.

Explaining the situation, Kompany said: “It’s definitely an option we’ve been pursuing, but the latest I’ve heard is that it’s not an option at this point.

“If possible, we try to bring good players into the club and try to strengthen the club.”

When asked if the deal was dead, Kompany added: “It’s not over until it’s over, you know that!

“But most managers say he’s not our player, so I have to respect that he’s someone else’s player.

“It still is, but I don’t want to deny that there has been an interest and if it happens we’ll see.

“These things have to happen sometimes, you express your interest, you do what is necessary and everything we do is going to be diligent, so we have our cap.

“That’s what we’ve got, take it or leave it, and we believe we can do that for you and you can do that for us, and we’re going on because we have to.”

Burnley have also been heavily linked with a loan move for Liverpool centre-back Sepp van den Berg, who has been on loan at Preston for the last 18 months, but Kompany admitted: ‘We’re talking about another club’s player, I can only say Sepp is one really good player but an important part of that is finding a balance between the players we already have and the playing time, making sure we are strong enough and when I follow the progress of our team, I think it is it’s fair to say we defended well in our own way.

“It’s been effective, there’s been deadlocks, management has worked hard and we’ve got guys like CJ Egan-Riley and Luke McNally coming in as backups, possibly guys like Lowton and Long, so I can’t give you a straight answer because it’s not being so direct, it’s just a matter of making sure we’re covered enough over the long term, but also making sure we’re not blocking anyone who’s doing well and we’re discussing this day in and day out.”