Sean Dyche says Premier League spending makes life difficult for Burnley

Burnley boss Sean Dyche has no doubt the challenge of remaining competitive is getting harder with Premier League rivals spending as they have done of late.

On Sunday the Clarets are at Fulham, who splashed out over £100million on transfer fees as they made 12 signings following their promotion from the Sky Bet Championship in May.

Meanwhile Burnley, after finishing seventh in the top flight last term, brought three new faces in – Ben Gibson, Joe Hart and Matej Vydra, for a total thought to be around £30million.

When Dyche, whose side lost their Europa League qualifying play-off first leg at Olympiakos 3-1 on Thursday, was asked if he had felt frustrated over the summer when working to get deals done and seeing Fulham, owned by Shahid Khan, spending so much money, he said: “It’s life at Burnley, it’s not new to me.

“It’s ongoing, and it’s a really tricky balance to find – it’s not easy to try to find the right players, the right wage level, the right fee, the right ability and consistency. And to do it all in the financial parameters that we have is a very difficult task.

“We’ve been doing it year on year. This year we didn’t get the number of players I was hoping to get, but we still got some good players. I still think we needed more – certainly one, if not two more.

“But because it’s so delicately balanced, it’s hard to find those players and tick all those boxes.

“We mentioned the other week about how the financial model of football has gone – it’s gone. Most owners don’t care about that. They just run their club in a manner they choose to.

“That’s fine and there’s no angle to that. If you are a very rich person and want to run your club however you wish, that’s up to you.

“But Burnley want to make sure not just the next month, but the next year, two, three years are looked after.

“The challenge is then still being competitive. Getting a team that can develop and win, and keep rolling that system out year on year, every transfer window. It’s very difficult.”

He added: “It does (get harder) because the numbers keep going up.

“You look at what Brighton are spending now, Huddersfield are spending. If they are spending that money and running away with the numbers, then we’ve got to keep chasing it.

“If the gap gets too big, it gets really, really difficult.”

Burnley, who came through two two-legged Europa League qualifying ties prior to the Olympiakos match, have so far drawn 0-0 at Southampton and lost 3-1 at home to Watford in the Premier League this term.

Dyche is set to bring several players back into the starting line-up on Sunday having made six changes on Thursday, when the likes of Hart, James Tarkowski and Aaron Lennon dropped to the bench and Ben Mee left out of the squad entirely.

Someone else not involved was Jonathan Walters. The 34-year-old forward has played only once in Burnley’s seven games this season and on Thursday he posted a message on Twitter that said: “I miss football.”

He has been linked with Preston, and Dyche said of Walters: “He’s fit and well and he knows if something becomes available that suits him, then that will be a key thing.

“He’s a well-respected senior professional and we make sure we respect him.”