Dyche out to add to his squad

Burnley have already brought in six signings since winning promotion back to the Premier League.

But Dyche remains keen to add to his squad, and is looking at pressing forward with a couple of deals before his players travel to Blackpool on Saturday.

It is doubtful there will be any new faces in time for tonight’s trip to Preston, but Dyche said: “We carry small numbers, and we’re looking to add to that. We are in the market and are aware of that.

“We have our eye on probably three or four, and we’re hoping one or two drop in sooner rather than later, but there’s a lot of work to be done.

“I don’t know whether they’ll be that quick (for Preston) but things are building in the background.

“Deals can take a bit longer but we’re certainly looking for things to start being productive this week.”

West Brom centre back Craig Dawson remains a target, having had two offers rebuffed for the former Rochdale man, but Dyche accepts Watford’s asking price for striker Troy Deeney is too high. As reported in Friday’s Express, stories in the national press claiming Burnley had made an £8m offer for Deeney are incorrect, and Dyche smiled: “I’ll quash that one about Troy Deeney and a bid for £8m, absolutely not.

“I don’t know what they think has happened to Burnley Football Club over the summer, I don’t think there’s too many £8m bids knocking around!

“There’s just a reality to it, we have to shop accordingly, shop wisely.

“We’ve done it before and proved we can still be competitive.”

And he remains determined to hold onto his key players and avoid last season’s scenario when Charlie Austin was sold to QPR two days before the start of the season.

Danny Ings has only a year remaining on his contract, but Dyche said: “We’ll not be losing any, we can’t!

“Our squad numbers insist on that.

“There were financial implications with Charlie last year, but we’re in considerably different shape this year.”