SEAN Dyche wants Burnley to upset the odds and push for the top six this season – after admitting contractual issues may have been a factor in their fall from play-off contention last term.

The Clarets returned to pre-season yesterday and are aiming to improve on last season’s finish of 11th.

Dyche believes Burnley can improve this term but knows they face a difficult task with limited finances.

The Clarets moved into seventh place by the end of January last season but fell away, with Dyche believing contract negotiations may have made an impact.

“We had a few issues behind the scenes with players contracts running out and a few being offered reductions, which is hard for players,” said Dyche.

Burnley had to open talks with a number of first-team stars who were due to be out of contract this summer, and the boss admits some were not happy to be asked to take pay cuts.

“We finished 11th, which for a club like ours is decent, but we want to build on that and move it forward,” said the Burnley boss.

“But the challenges are quite obvious. It was a really positive finish for us. We don’t want to just settle for that, we want to build but we have to be careful with our resources, but I think there’s a few who have to do that.

“It is a bit of a juggle with the finances but we still think we can be competitive and bring in players in order to do so.

“It’s a very competitive league but it’s not always the market leaders who get the very top of it.

“We want to be one of those surprise packages.”

All of Burnley’s squad trained yesterday apart from David Edgar, who is set to represent Canada at the Gold Cup next month.

Tom Heaton and Alex Cisak have linked up with their new team-mates and they were joined by fellow keeper Nick Liversedge.

The 24-year-old is yet to put pen to paper on a deal to join Burnley from non-league side Whitby Town but Dyche confirmed that the keeper would be signing for the club.

“Alex Cisak’s come in, Tom Heaton’s come in as well as another keeper Nick Liversedge who has come out of non-league and is a bit of a find for us,” he said.

“We’re still active. The market has been very quiet this summer and sometimes it just takes that catalyst of people coming back to work into the office every day.

“I think things will start warming up and we’re certainly part of that.”