BOTH Burnley and Manchester City were frustrated in their attempts to bring any new faces in on deadline day with both clubs refusing to be held to ransom as the clock ticked towards 11pm.

But that just about where the similarities end between the two sides. There might be a principle at both Turf Moor and the Etihad not to overpay, but while the Clarets refused to countenance £15million for Rob Holding or £20million for Joe Worrall, City were baulking at £80million for Riyad Mahrez.

There's no doubt which side's need was greater. The loss of Leroy Sane to Pep Guardiola is clearly a blow, but he still has plenty of options, and expensive ones at that. At £43.5million Bernardo Silva isn't a bad replacement.

The loss of James Tarkowski to Sean Dyche is a more grievous blow, even for just a couple of weeks. Burnley have been stretched all season at the heart of defence and now they're down to just two fit central defenders again. There's no mega-money replacement sitting on the bench for Burnley. Instead it's Kevin Long who has stepped in, a defender signed for a six-figure sum from the League of Ireland.

Meanwhile City were able to sign Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao for £57million. Five of the 10 most expensive defenders in history now call the Etihad Stadium home.

These two sides are playing on the same game but they're on very different levels. Despite all that they were will walk out at Turf Moor on Saturday as football equals, if not financial equals.

The deal for Laporte has taken City's spending in Guardiola's 19 months in charge to close to the £450million mark. Dyche has spent around £105million in his five-and-a-quarter years at Turf Moor.

As Dyche explained when discussing Burnley's decision to walk away from negotiations with Arsenal and Nottingham Forest for Holding and Worrall there comes a point when you just have to say 'no', although that point is much earlier for the Clarets than it is for City.

"There was a couple of situations we thought might come our way, but the market is tough, we all know that," Dyche said of his January dealings.

"We are what we are, everyone knows that, we have to run the club in an appropriate manner and that’s what we chose to do and that makes it difficult.

"There’s certain situations where the money goes up and up and up and eventually you have to say no, not for us. It is what it is, we move forward."