Burnley manager Sean Dyche still expects the club to sign Rangers' Joey Barton, despite the English midfielder facing an FA investigation.
Barton has been charged by the Football Association for having placed 1,260 bets on football matches over the last 10 years. Under FA regulations, footballers are banned from betting on their own sport.
Last week, Barton agreed a deal in principle to join Burnley – the team with whom he won promotion to the Premier League last season.
Should the deal go ahead, he would join Dyche's side in the January transfer window until the end of the current campaign.
This deal was thrown into doubt after the FA charge, but Dyche says that there is a very strong possibility that he will join the club in the new year.
"There are ongoing discussions with him and his advisers, just to make sure we all know where we stand," he told reporters ahead of his side's bottom of the table clash with Sunderland on New Year's Eve.
"Then if that goes well, there is in theory a strong possibility that things will go ahead with some certain caveats should they arise."
Earlier this year it emerged, Barton placed 44 bets on games between 1 July 2016 - when his deal with the Scottish Premier League side started - and 15 September. His Scottish suspension will carry over into his Burnley career, should it go ahead.
Barton had his Rangers contract terminated last month, seven weeks after being suspended by the club over a training ground row with his manager and a teammate.
His move to the Premier League is on hold for the time being until these issues are resolved.
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