SEAN Dyche has insisted Burnley can’t afford to buy ‘stopgap’ players after defending his decision not to sign a central defender in the January transfer window.

Dyche has just two senior centre backs at his disposal at the moment in Ben Mee and Kevin Long, with James Tarkowski sidelined with a groin injury.

The Turf chief wants four in his squad but was foiled in his attempts to bring in a replacement for Michael Keane for the second successive transfer window.

The club walked away from negotiations with Nottingham Forest and Arsenal in the final 24 hours of the January window when the pair refused to lower their valuations of Burnley targets. Forest wanted £20million for England Under-21 international Joe Worrall, while Arsenal were after £15million for former Bolton defender Rob Holding.

With those moves shelved Dyche kept his powder dry and said signing someone as a short-term measure was never an option.

“We can’t really buy stopgaps, I don’t think that helps the club,” he said.

“It’s difficult because you have to get the job done. We are in a favourable position but the player coming in has to be someone who can add to the group or push the group going forward in the future.”

The injury to Tarkowski could have added pressure on Dyche to recruit, but he pointed out that businesses wouldn’t change their long-term plans in an act of panic, so why should so a football club.

“How many millions do you put against a player you have got who in theory might be a game or two? How much does that cost to put someone in when you might not be sure they’re the right player,” he added.

“Some clubs don’t figure all that. We will just bring them in anyway and worry about it later.

“It happens a lot in the Premier League. If the club can afford to do that great, but they can’t so it has to be run properly.

“You would never change it in business. If it went over the mark to try to get that product, they will go to a certain amount and say that’s enough.

“In football, it doesn’t matter. It might not work but let’s go and spend five times as much as we need to.

“This club doesn’t do that. It’s hard, but it’s measured and it’s appropriate. Then it’s difficult for the chairman and the board and for me that that gets judged.”

Dyche ruled out the possibility of bringing in a loan signing to cover the central defensive positions, saying that any new recruit may only get a couple of games and would therefore find it difficult to buy into the club’s culture.

Given Tarkowski’s absence is set to be short-term Dyche didn’t feel the need to rush through a deal, although he admitted had the club been lower in the table or had a more serious injury list then he may have had to.

“If you are in a must situation it’s a different ball game,” he added. “Maybe you have injuries to four centre backs, that’s extreme, that’s when you have to affect it. “