SEAN Dyche says he is ‘open minded’ about what his future brings in management as he continues to be linked with the vacant Leicester City job.

Dyche is among the favourites to replace Craig Shakespeare at the King Power Stadium and when asked the Turf Moor boss didn’t rule himself out of the running.

But he said the talk was ‘hypothetical,’ with Leicester yet to make an approach. And the Clarets chief said his focus is on preparing Burnley for Saturday’s trip to leaders Manchester City.

“I’m quite open minded about what comes next, with Burnley, beyond that, who knows? I’m open minded about it all,” Dyche said.

The Clarets chief, who celebrates five years at Turf Moor in 10 days time also said he didn’t need to rule himself out of the running for the Foxes post and commit his future to Burnley.

“I don’t need to do that because I’ve been here five years,” he added. “I’ve had this conversation maybe 10 times over the last couple of years. I’m still here so I just get on with it, whatever will be will be.

“It’s questions about a story that is completely out of my hands. It’s hypothetical.

“I’ve had to answer these so many times but I’m still here. That doesn’t guarantee anything, one day it will change, in my control or out of my control. It’s the nature of football."

Dyche commutes to Burnley from his family home in Northamptonshire, splitting his time between the two and keeping a flat in East Lancashire.

The lure of moving to a club closer to home had been mentioned as an attraction for the Foxes job, but Dyche played that down.

“It’s family first, but my family have been fine,” he said. “If it was ever compromised I’d be out of here like a shot, not to any club, I’d just be off.

“There’s a bigger picture than football and that’s my family. If there was anything I had to leave here for that would be the number one thing.

“But they’re cool, they get it. They spend time up here, they’re coming up this weekend, and I go down there. That’s not first on the agenda until it has to be, but it doesn’t have to be now.”

Dyche has enjoyed plenty of influence during his time at Burnley, in terms of identifying signings and playing a key role in the development of the training ground, but said that didn’t necessarily equate to having ‘freedom’ in the job.

He added: “It’s a funny one. Freedom with finance? No. With squad size? No. What kind of freedom? The training ground is an involved thing, staff, board, a load of people coming together and deciding the best outcome.

“It’s not free to do whatever you want at this club, there’s certain guidelines you have to try and manage wisely to make it work along the way.”

The 46-year-old’s stock has risen with the success he has brought to Burnley and the Turf chief believes he can now be more selective in terms of choosing his next move, having joined the club with just one season of management under his belt.

“When I came here I’d just left Watford, they offered me the job and I more or less thought I’ve got to take it because I have to earn my spurs,” he said of taking charge at Turf Moor.

“Once you’ve got a bit more experience you can be a bit more selective. It’s not radically different to normal life.”

Leicester have been through two managers in 2017 with Shakespeare, who replaced title-winning boss Claudio Rainier, lasting just 26 games before he was axed on Tuesday.

But Dyche said he didn’t spend too much time worrying about the difficulty of planning his career.

“I don’t overthink all of that stuff,” he said. “The lifespan of a manager is getting shorter. What can you do about that? Work hard, try and make as many good decisions as you can to make it longer.

“I’ve been in football all my life. I know the warts and all of the game, on and off the pitch, as a player, coach and manager. It gives you a better balance to it all.

“How can you design your end goal? In a normal structured role you can probably do it, in football you need so many things to come together, the perfect storm to give you that moment of success that might shift you on somewhere.”