Vincent Kompany has kept his cards close to his chest when discussing a potential loan move for Manchester City striker Liam Delap.
Pep Guardiola confirmed at the weekend that striker Delap would be sent out on loan before the September 1 transfer deadline, saying he will not benefit from another season dropping down to play for the under-21s when he's not featuring for the first team.
That appears to have set off a race for his signature, with Kompany's Burnley, West Brom and Stoke all declaring an interest in the prolific City striker.
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Discussing Delap this week, Kompany said: "We are talking about a very young player so the last thing I want to do is start something. I think we are always looking at players who can strengthen our team but not every one of the players that get mentioned we can go for.
"We have to get the balance between experience and young players. We have Scott Twine, Jay Rodriguez and Ashley Barnes but we haven't had them all fit yet. We have to be careful we don't see a problem where there isn't one, but there is a problem when they are not fit of course!"
Kompany already has defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis on loan from City this season, and he earned praise in their draw with Hull on Tuesday that left them 11th in the table after four games - above two other sides looking for attacking reinforcements to climb up the league.
West Brom have started slowly and have just two points from three games, with manager Steve Bruce looking at Delap as a potential solution to get them firing.
Asked about Delap this week, he said: "Who wouldn't be [interested]? We'll see. Me and everybody else. He's an outstanding talent. We've got huge competition. He's a young player that everybody up and down the country would love to have in their team."
Stoke are 19th, and their manager, Michael O'Neill, discussed the possibility of loaning Delap, pointing to their handling of Harwood-Bellis last season as a selling point.
"He's a young striker who has not yet been out on loan," said O'Neill. "He's got a very big reputation at international level under-age and he's affiliated with Manchester City, who are loaded with young players with big reputations.
"We had Taylor Harwood-Bellis here last year and we know the relationship exists there. But at this minute in time, the player in question was on the bench for the first team on Saturday. While we have obviously made it known that we have an interest there, the situation is not in our control.
"I think it's always down to two things with loan deals: the parent club predominantly and it's down to the player, wherever he wants to go. That's the same for any loan really.
"We have to sell ourselves as a club to the player and the parent club. I think we've done that well with the loans that we've had, particularly from the bigger Premier League clubs. It's good that we've done that and they see us as a good option for the young player to come to.
"Ultimately, from their perspective, the loan is about the player's development. From our perspective, the loan is about strengthening our team. That's the angle we have to take. We've done what we can do in the loan market in relation to pitching to clubs for various players.
"I think clubs know what we want, they know how we'll treat the player, I think they know that the player will be looked after and handled properly. Over the next two weeks we'll see that market speed up a bit more. Premier League clubs' benches get a little bit fuller as they bring more players in and suddenly those younger players, clubs can make decisions on them at that point in time."
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