Burnley boss wants to keep squad together

Despite interest in Martin Paterson, from Wolves, and Chris McCann, from Blackpool, no ins or outs were expected ahead of the close of the Football League’s emergency window.

Both Paterson and McCann are out of contract in the summer, and moves were afoot to take the pair on loan until the end of the season, with a view to permanent views, but Dyche said yesterday morning: “We’re not expecting anything going out of the building.

“It’s more of a loan transfer, but as we know people do build loans into moves nowadays to change the system somewhat.

“In terms of incoming we’ve had a few things that we’ve looked at, and for different reasons they haven’t quite come through.

“As you can imagine there’s a bit of a search on for many different clubs and the market leaders tend to get in with the big money before we get a chance sometimes.

“We’re not expecting anything but we’ll see.”

Asked if there had been any loan bids, he replied: “No.”

Both Paterson and McCann could leave for nothing in the summer, but Dyche added: “They’re not out of contract as in leaving at this moment.

“Negotiations are ongoing with many different parties for many different reasons including our own at the club because of the financial futures.

“That’s an ongoing situation and the dust will settle accordingly.

“Ross Wallace was one who signed and Kevin Long has signed, at different levels of the market to be fair.

“It’s ongoing with other players, some have started, some are in progression, some have yet to start.

“We’re fathoming our way through it accordingly with that balance that’s needed to make the numbers and the players work and feel right about what they’re doing. We’re ongoing with people just to at least advise as to what the future looks like.”

Meanwhile, Dyche makes his first return as a manager to Watford, who he parted company with in the summer, after the arrival of the Pozzo family.

But, as he said when the Hornets came to Turf Moor in December, he harbours no ill feeling: “It’s another good game for us to try to win, and that’s it in a nutshell.

“I’ve made it clear many times I don’t do ‘old club’ scenarios.

“I didn’t do it at Millwall, don’t do it at Watford.

“But there’s no bitterness, none at all. Absolutely none.

“It’s bitter in the sense I thought we were building something, but nothing to do with the decision. It’s life, it’s football. There are people out there in general life who get sacked and they haven’t got the back-up and support that I’ve had from 20 years in football.

“It’s more callous when you’ve got three mouths to feed and a missus at home and you’re a bricklayer and you’ve got no work. That seems callous to me.

“In my world I’ve worked hard to afford myself the chance for if things go wrong at least I’ve got a next start and something to fall back on.

“Football’s a marvellous situation to be in – it’s a marvellous game and I enjoy the challenge of it, the ups the downs, everything about it.

“I’m certainly not going to cry it in because someone came along and said ‘it’s not for you, we’re going to change things’.”

He is just focussed on trying to win a game of football: “It’s a case of it being an important game for us. We’ve had a couple of results taken away from us with things tout of our hands with decisions – we’re hoping that pays us back at some point.”

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