BURNLEY v BRIGHTON SEAN OF THE DREAD Clarets boss Dyche fears he could lose Pope AND McNeil
SEAN DYCHE accepts that he will struggle to hold on to two of his most prized assets during the upcoming transfer window.
With goalkeeper Nick Pope reportedly now on the radar of Chelsea, and winger Dwight McNeil interesting Everton, the Burnley boss says it’s just a fact of life at Turf Moor that bigger clubs will always try to cherry pick his best players.
England international Pope is vying for the Premier League’s Golden Glove award with Manchester City’s Ederson.
Both are level on 15 clean sheets going into the final day, with Pope aiming to keep Brighton at bay and hoping already-relegated Norwich can find the net against City.
McNeil, 20, has starred on the left side during this campaign, with his form even rumoured to have had Manchester United considering bringing him back to Old Trafford, having released him as a teenager.
For Dyche, he insists that accepting Burnley’s financial ceiling means he realises that star performers will always be tempted away.
he said: “It’s not fear, it’s just reality. When you’ve got players of that calibre that are delivering there is a reality that people possibly start looking at them and therefore make a phone call to the chairman.
“It’s the market. If you’ve got good players you want them, and usually someone else wants them.”
In terms of strengthening during the rest of the summer, ahead of the September 12 start date for next season, Dyche remained coy.
“I’ve always got a number in mind, but we don’t look at it like how many we need. In my experience there is no point saying ‘We need this amount of players’ because invariably that’s not going to happen.
“It’s more a case of seeing what the market offers, trying to affect what we think we can. We have to look at the whole thing rather than cherry picking three or four or five players.”
Victory over Brighton will guarantee Burnley finish ahead of Arsenal and, should Sheffield United also drop points away to Southampton, it will see the Clarets leapfrog Chris Wilder’s impressive outfit into eighth.
Considering they only avoided relegation by six points last season – ending up 15th – that’s quite a jump.
“We’ve raised the bar,” said Dyche. “We call it raising the minimum. Your maximum looks after itself. If you’re a good footballer, when you’re at maximum you are still going to be a very good footballer.
“What about raising the quiet days? And how can we raise each individual when it’s not quite working for them?
“We’ve got five or six in the main group who have raised their quiet days. That allows us to push forward.”