HAVING two left-footed centre halves isn't seen as the way forward in modern football.

Manchester City's Pep Guardiola praised Aymeric Laporte by saying: "It's so important to have a left (footed) central defender."

In Saturday's final pre-season game against Parma, Sean Dyche deployed two in Ben Mee and Ben Gibson.

France's World Cup winning manager Didier Deschamps isn't keen on the idea either with Laporte struggling to get in the France squad at all: "If you tell me he must be in (Marseille centre back Adil) Rami's place, then I stop you right away. Sorry, but two left-footed defenders at centre-back at international level..."

Sean Dyche doesn't see the concern that managers and fans often have about playing with two left-footed centre halves.

The Clarets kept a clean sheet against the Italians as Gibson played on the right and Mee situated on the left.

"It is a peculiar thing, I was right footed and I played left, and then two lefties is an unusual combination," the Burnley manager said.

"It didn't look any different I didn't think. I thought they both performed well.

"Ben Mee I thought was outstanding, and Gibbo did more than enough to start showing us what he is about."

The former Middlesbrough man had missed the previous three friendly games after rolling his ankle at Port Vale, but was able to prove his fitness against the Serie A side.

"He has done brilliantly to get fit because his ankle was quite bad, so that was more of a precaution.

"He is a super fit lad, he wanted to play on, but he is well in front of the curve for that type of injury."

Elsewhere, linked with moves away from Turf Moor are strike duo Matej Vydra and Nahki Wells, with Vydra having reportedly handed in a transfer request.

Vydra, who was left on the bench for the entirety of the Parma match, has been linked to Championship side Leeds United.

"Yes, there is every chance," Dyche replied when asked if the Czech international could stay at the club.

"I have made it clear many times, we are not in a position where we need to sell anyone.

"Any sale will be thought through, it won't be a case of we need to sell someone, quite obviously after the years in the Premier League and we are not throwing money around. We are not under pressure to sell anyone."

Dyche insists his decision to bring on Wells over Vydra was a case of who has played the most minutes.

"We can't play everyone all the time," said Dyche.

"We have had some minor injuries but nothing too major so we have adapted the team and with that team we looked at the minutes list and Barnesy was top with Westy next to him so that is why they played different amounts to let others catch up.

"It is never perfect but we have done well this pre-season to get a lot of the players up to a literal game time so we have done well to get a good blend into all the players of actual minutes."

Vydra joined Burnley for £11million last summer from Derby while Wells was a £5m purchase the year before from Huddersfield.

They have only managed 22 appearances and just the three starts - made by Vydra.