SEAN Dyche admits seeing Burnley in Europe was something that never even crossed his mind when he took the reins at Turf Moor five-and-a-half years ago.

That’s why the Clarets will ‘embrace’ the Europa League this season, as the culmination of a remarkable rise since October 2012.

Dyche has transformed Burnley from a mid-table Championship side to the seventh best team in the country, with the success of last season earning them a place in Europe for the first time in more than half a century.

The draw for the Europa League second qualifying round has handed Dyche’s side a tricky start, with a Battle of Britain clash against Scottish Premiership runners-up Aberdeen.

But despite talk of a long run in Europe having a potential impact on domestic displays thanks to the Thursday-Sunday schedule, Dyche insists seeing Burnley in Europe can be nothing other than a positive.

“The inside view is of course it is to be embraced, no one was even thinking of Burnley in Europe, it didn’t cross their mind, including me, five and a half years ago,” the Turf boss said.

“The building blocks had to be put in place to even get close. Now it’s a reality. That can’t be anything other than a positive.”

Dyche is aware that there will be doubts about the Clarets this season and question marks over what kind of impact the demands of European football will have.

He added: “Outside it will be the negative story sells a bit better. That’s the nature of the world, that’s going to be a challenge, they’re going to have to do this and that.

“We’ve always concentrated on what we’re doing in house.

“People focus on how we play, what we should spend, what we shouldn’t spend, we’ve always focused on what we’re doing here, always, so that’s what we do.”

One route to combat the increased demands Dyche won’t take is dramatically increasing the size of his squad, highlighting the unusual run of injuries suffered last term as the reason resources were stretched at times, particularly in the second half of the season.

“The thing you’ve got to remember is that this has been an unusual year for us with injuries,” he said.

“Our squad is small by most Premier League standards, but it’s not by our standards. So If we had everyone fit, we’ve got 23 outfield players, and that’s quite a lot for us. So therefore that’s two players for each outfield position plus three over the top.

“Now if you have good fitness in any given year, that’s quite a lot of players.

“The squad we’ve built is the most competitive group we’ve got.

“There are players in each slot who are really vying. I can make changes. In the past, we’ve had times where I’ve thought: ‘That’s going weaken us.’

“Now I think it’s much of a muchness, because the margins are so tight, and that’s great. Those are the decisions I want as a manager.

“If you look back at some of the press conferences at the end of the last pre-season, I was saying that I was really pleased with this group.

“I think it’s the strongest group, the deepest group, that we’ve had in terms of quality and demanding the challenge.

“We’re always looking and we possibility need to add.

“But if you take away this season’s injuries, you wouldn’t need that much, because otherwise you start growing into this thing that’s not you. We’ve still got to be us.”

“If that works, the party line will be it’s actually favoured them, they’re learning more, and Sean Dyche said this will add to their learning, and if it doesn’t, it’s down to too many games, we told them that!