WHAT a great way to signal the start of pre-season, with Tom Heaton signing a new three-year deal.

I must admit I feared we would find it difficult to hang on to the goalkeeper purely because of the tremendous season he had, which was recognised by his call-up to the England squad and his fellow team-mates voting him their player of the year.

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He has been tremendous for the club in his first two years, and long may that continue.

Less than six weeks after last season ended, the players are back in training today.

It is one of the shortest breaks I can remember.

When I was playing, ours used to be 13 weeks long! That posed its own problems because it was easy to lose your fitness over that lengthy timescale.

These modern-day Clarets won’t have had time to get unfit, and I worry that the break has not been long enough.

However, I’m sure Sean Dyche and his backroom team will know how to manage the situation and tinker any pre-season plans accordingly so that the players are not over-worked or over-tired for the start of the season.

It is not just about putting the players through their paces, it is about getting the right ones in, and I am very pleased that he has said he is going to be patient when it comes to new signings.

He has got his sights on strikers, which is obviously the position where we need reinforcements after losing Danny Ings to Liverpool, while Ashley Barnes is out for a lengthy spell.

In the last few seasons we have been in the Premier League then the Championship, back to the Premier League and relegated again.

For a wee town like this I can only say it has been fantastic and supporters of the club can be very proud.

How can we compete with the big guns when they are offering £64million for players? We can’t.

But what pleases me is this board of directors are claret and blue through and through and have got the club back into the black.

They now own Turf Moor stadium again and the training facilities at Gawthorpe which a lot of rich Premier League clubs are envious of.

To have these assets and the manager who cares for his club I feel that great times will be with us in the not so distant future.

The first pre-season game is nearly upon us against Étoile Carouge FC, and as well as the usual meeting with Accrington Stanley we have added a trip to Rangers into the mix, which should make for a good game and – although they have yet to reclaim their place in the Scottish Premier League – a good test.