SEAN Dyche believes his Burnley players have got more development in them after another season of improvement at Turf Moor.

The Clarets boss believes the club have done ‘pretty well’ with their recruitment and the likes of Nick Pope, James Tarkowski and Johann Berg Gudmundsson are recent examples of that.

Pope was signed for £1million from Charlton, while Tarkowski and Gudmundsson were both around the £3million mark from Brentford and the Charlton respectively.

The trio would be worth considerably more than that now, with Pope in the England World Cup squad and Gudmundsson enjoying a breakthrough Premier League campaign before jetting off to the World Cup with Iceland.

Tarkowski was on the England standby list before withdrawing to have a hernia operation.

Dyche managed to sign all three players without any real competition and they have taken huge strides forward at Burnley.

“We’ve been pretty good signing players, we’ve got a few that people have looked at and weren’t quite sure on, and we’ve overall done pretty well with our recruitment,” the Clarets chief said.

“There’s not many of those £1.5/2m ones out there, nowadays that’s really cheap. If you look at that, the return on our investment has been huge.

“We work with the players constantly about the detail within their performances, but the players deserve the most credit.

“I’m a massive fan of working with players, it’s not an easy career and they work very hard to improve themselves.”

Gudmundsson suffered an injury-hit first season with the Clarets but he has been one of the club’s star men this season, contributing two goals and a club record eight assists in the Premier League.

His development has been overshadowed by Pope and Tarkowski’s rise to the Three Lions, while Dyche also name-checked Kevin Long and Ashley Barnes as two further examples of players coming on in leaps and bounds at Burnley.

“I think the other stories are bigger stories, Tarky and Popey hadn’t got on the pitch very much. Johann has has a season around it,” Dyche said. “Longy, over the last how many games he’s played and spells he’s had, has been terrific.

“We want the players to keep growing. Woody (Chris Wood), apart from the injury, has got a good chunk of the season under his belt.

“Barnesy is another one, a different story, slightly older, wiser, a bit more experience, but I think his performances have moved on.

“There’s been a lot of good signs.”

Dyche believes there could be more to come from his players as well. He uses the example of Barnes who has enjoyed the best season of his career this year. The 28-year-old ended this campaign with nine Premier League goals, his highest tally yet, and a regular place in the starting line-up.

Dyche also mentioned former Claret - now Under-23s coach at the club - Michael Duff has another player who continued to improve with age.

“I think it continues, Barnesy is a good example. He’s 28 and still improving,” Dyche said when asked players with room for further development.

“Players can improve in many different ways, the most obvious is their professionalism improves.

“Year on year you get wiser to what the profession is, your on-pitch experience improves, but he’s improved technically, with his know how of the role, I’ve enjoyed that.

“I remember Duffo playing here and people writing him off, and he had two promotions and played in the Premier League.

"His development was probably more about looking after himself, buying into what we offer.”

“There’s many different ways, and I marvel at the players.”