Dyche confident of keeping Tarkowski out of West Ham’s clutches

Joe Williams
James Tarkowski

Sean Dyche remains confident defender James Tarkowski will still be at Burnley come the end of the transfer window as it would take a “considerable” bid to even think about allowing him to leave.

West Ham have had three offers – the last believed to be about £30million – rejected for the England international, with the Clarets in no mood to let the 27-year-old centre-back leave an already thin squad.

“There’s nothing relevant at the moment, we’re hoping it’s not obviously,” said Dyche.


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“We want to keep our players in-house that’s for sure. With James Tarkowski I am not planning on anything else other than him being here.

“He is a very good player and has delivered for us on a consistent basis over a long period of time.

“As I’ve mentioned before I don’t see why any player would leave here at this moment in time and the numbers are considerable for that to be even considered.”

Dyche has transfer issues of his own as he tries to bolster a small squad which was severely impacted by summer departures.

Back-up goalkeeper Joe Hart and midfielders Jeff Hendrick and Aaron Lennon have all left on free transfers, with Wolves goalkeeper Will Norris and Augsburg midfielder Marc Richter the only arrivals so far.

“The main difficulty is finance, it has always been difficult here,” added Dyche.

“It’s a challenge, we know that, the group needs reinforcements as we’ve lost players at the end of lockdown, good players who have served the club well.

“We are looking but it is not an easy situation when you are looking at the finances.

“We have done well in bringing in players who can challenge what we have here or we can mould into what we do here as well as what you would probably recognise as starters.

“We have found a way of making it work, the challenge is getting harder each season.”