STEVE Cotterill has had some tough calls to make this summer. Postponing a family holiday and clocking up the hours and miles to try to make his budget stretch as far as possible has reaped its rewards.

And while the Burnley manager might have been looking in a different marketplace given some serious financial backing, he's certainly made his money go a long way by bringing in five players on free transfers.

But intriguingly, Steve's biggest decision still lies ahead of him.

Bolstered by the signings of Wayne Thomas and Danny Karbassiyoon, the defensive unit already looks capable of carrying on the good work of last season and racking up the clean sheets.

But the big headache he has is deciding who to choose as the last line of that Scrooge-like defence.

Brian Jensen and Danny Coyne shared the duties last season and both will be eager to steal a march on the other in the remaining pre-season games.

Right now it's a really tough call because I feel sure both goalkeepers would walk into any other Championship side. I'm only glad it's Steve and not me who has to make that decision, because somebody is gong to be left disappointed.

I'm tempted to sit on the fence on this one because, although Danny's shot stopping is 11 out of 10, when he picked up his injury in mid-season Brian took over the role and was absolutely awesome.

I have to admit the Dane surprised me because I thought his days were numbered once Danny arrived from Leicester.

However, I'm delighted he proved so many people wrong and earned the new three-year contract he signed in March.

In my opinion the only chink in Danny's armoury came when crosses were floated into the penalty area. In contrast, the Beast was dominant, reliable and really helped to ease the pressure on the defence.

An interesting sub-plot is that Danny will be desperate to re-establish himself ahead of Wales' World Cup qualifier against England in September, so I'm sure John Toshack will be keeping a close eye on the situation at Turf Moor.

As I said, it is a major headache for Steve as he looks ahead to the Championship opener at Crewe Alexandra in just two weeks time.

But I'm sure he would rather have that headache than not.

When Stan Ternent was in charge, he went down the road of only having one goalkeeper and keeping his fingers crossed injury wise. Thankfully his luck was in, even though he would argue he could dip into the loan market should the worst case scenario materialise.

But in reality, that policy was far from ideal. Any manager will tell you that having two 'keepers encourages competition and helps to keep them on their toes.

Look no further for proof of that than Brian, who ironically improved after Danny arrived on the scene.

If I was a betting man, I'd still guess that Danny will get the nod from the gaffer in a fortnight.

However, with the fight too close to call everyone at Turf Moor can at least breathe easy knowing that whoever's number comes up, there's no gamble involved.