I’M pretty sure people in the office think there is something wrong with me.

For the last couple of days I’ve been walking around muttering ‘four-and-a-half years, FOUR-AND-A-HALF YEARS!’.

I have not succumbed to a strange illness but I am on cloud nine, high on life after the news on Tuesday that Sean Dyche, has signed an extension to his Turf Moor contract.

I don’t think I was ever worried he would up sticks and leave. But I certainly feel more secure now he’s put pen to paper on a long-term deal.

He’d been on a rolling one-year contract until now but this is a huge commitment from both him and the board.

Some of the figures being talked about are a long way beyond what I ever dreamed a Clarets player or manager could be earning but he’s worth every penny.

For me, the other impressive – and exciting – thing about the deal is the stuff Dyche was saying.

He talked of a connection with the area, of still wanting to grow and progress and how Burnley is the place for him to do just that.

Make no bones about it, if he carries on producing the goods at the Turf he will get one of the very big jobs in football (or turn the Clarets into one of those very big jobs).

I see him as a future England manager and maybe he feels a decade at a single club would prepare him for that gig – if the bosses at Wembley are brave enough to approach him in a couple of tournament cycles time.

In the meantime we get to enjoy everything this maestro serves up.

The news of his new contract came on the same day as we announced another cracking signing – Aaron Lennon from Everton.

The winger was linked in the summer but opted against a move then but now he says he’s raring to go.

We’ve lacked a little bit of pace and guile at times and he brings both in abundance.

Whether we are able to add any new faces to the squad before deadline day and the Premier League trip to Newcastle United next week remains to be seen.

But they’ll have to be pretty big to beat the signing of Dyche to the mantle of best deal of the window!