Burnley should eye up ex-Bayer Leverkusen defender & 2 other free agents in potential October swoop | OneFootball

These are three out-of-contract players that the Clarets could look at this month.

If there's any team in the Championship that doesn't necessarily need its squad bulking up, it's Burnley.

Transfermarkt lists the Clarets as having a 30-man squad, however Sofascore puts their size at 32. Either way, neither of those numbers are small, so perhaps the need to add any more fresh faces to their squad isn't a massive one.

Even when it was obvious that Burnley needed to offload players in the summer, they kept on adding them at the same time, so you wouldn't put it past them to make some moves before the end of the month.

So, if they were to go after some free agents to help themselves out, who should they go for? Football League World has suggested the names of three free agents that Scott Parker's Clarets could have on their watchlist.

Timothy Fosu-Mensah

At this stage of the season, players are unlikely to be picked up by teams unless they have undoubted quality that could help the team, or there is some connection between them and the team/manager that they are prospectively joining up with.

In the case of Timothy Fosu-Mensah, it's more to do with his quality, but there was almost a direct relationship between Parker and himslef.

The former Manchester United defender joined Fulham on a season-long loan in the summer of 2018, one year after the now boss of Burnley retired while playing for the Cottagers, and one year before he became the London-based club's manager.

Fosu-Mensah, 26, has experience of playing in the top two European club competitions - the Champions League and the Europa League - as well as being part of a recently crowned invincible team. Yes, he was on Bayer Leverkusen's books during their historic 2023/24 season, before being released at the end of it.

His athletic ability would come in very handy for this side that is looking to make its way back to the Premier League.

Emiliano Marcondes

Emiliano Marcondes has already been signed by Parker once in his career. The now 29-year-old Danish midfielder joined AFC Bournemouth in July 2021 as a free agent from Brentford.

Experience in getting promoted from the Championship is always a good thing to have in your team; Marcondes can bring that to Turf Moor. He's got five seasons in the English third tier under his belt, racking up just shy of 100 appearances during that time.

Even on a short-term deal, the former Hibernian player could be of use to the Clarets.

Merveille Bokadi

Parker's tenure in the Belgian Pro League with Club Brugge was certainly short-lived, but he would have got the opportunity to get a glimpse at a lot of the talent that lurks in that league.

Merveille Bokadi was a rock at the back for Standard Liege while Parker was in the country. The former England midfielder never got to coach against the DR Congo international, such was the length of his stay in Belgium, but his record in the nation's top division is certainly solid.

He had a stop-start campaign last time out, only racking up 18 appearances. However, 15 of those were starts, so he tended to be used when available.

Prior to that, the 28-year-old defender - who can play in the middle or on the right of a backline - started 33 times for Liege, so he's at least worth considering for Burnley, especially with their lack of depth at right-back.