From The Lancashire Telegraph of 12 July 2018.
THERE'S a 'strong chance' Burnley will break their club record again this summer, according to boss Sean Dyche.
The Clarets are yet to make a new signing during the transfer window, but with four weeks until deadline day on Thursday, August 9, Dyche believes a deal that would top the £15million paid for Chris Wood last August could be on.
Asked if the club record was likely to go again for a fourth summer in a row, Dyche said: "There’s a strong chance, just by the fact that clubs now act as agents.
"It’s the irony of football that clubs question agents, but if you put a bid in for someone, as if by magic, it’s out on the wires within seconds. That's the nature of the game.
"We definitely need more numbers, we’re not deep in numbers, we know that.
"We want quality numbers, we don’t just want any old player who can fill a slot, we want players who can be competitive."
Burnley have been frustrated in their attempts to add to the squad this summer, with a £25million double bid for West Brom pair Craig Dawson and Jay Rodriguez rejected by the Baggies.
The Clarets refuse to pay over the odds for new recruits, but Dyche believes the approach can be 'stretched' as he looks to strengthen the ranks at Turf Moor.
Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph at Burnley's Cork training camp, Dyche said: "We’re in a very good position as a club, everyone knows that, but the club is run in a certain way.
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"The chairman and the board want it run in that way, so it’s not a case of throwing money at every situation, it’s a case of throwing money at the right situation.
"You can’t rip up the values of the club for every deal that you do, but it is frustrating, because the market does move forward.
"Sometimes it takes our club mentality to learn it needs to be speeded up, because the market tells you it doesn’t care about good business sense, it doesn’t care about good planning and organisation and structure, the market cares about if you’re getting a team to win football matches.
"It’s finding that healthy balance between the two, which over the last six years we’ve done, we’re not going to rip that up and throw it all away, but it does need to be stretched a little bit so we can make sure we’re still competitive."
Asked if he was close to any deals, Dyche added: "We’re closer. You can think you’re close and you can think you’re there, but until the papers are signed and it’s all done then you’re not there.
"We have to keep working and be diligent in the market and we have to keep our ear to the ground for the shifting sands of what happens at football clubs."
The window shuts earlier this season, on the Thursday before the Premier League campaign begins, but it hasn't led to an increase in deals being done early.
"I think that’s the complexities of the market, not many deals get done quickly and if they do it’s normally for enormous amounts of money," Dyche said.
"It’s not just us. Sometimes Burnley fans say ‘we’re not doing this and we’re not doing that’. There’s loads of clubs out there trying to be diligent and trying to make the finances make sense.
"It’s not just us, that’s why the market is sometimes a bit slower, because everyone is trying to suss out situations to make sure they’re doing it in the right fashion."
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