SEAN Dyche is relishing the challenge of leading Burnley into Europe next season, having become the first Clarets manager to do so since Harry Potts 51 years ago.

The club’s astonishing seventh place finish in the Premier League this term - their highest league finish since 1973/74 - means the Clarets will enter the Europa League at the second qualifying round stage in the summer.

The first leg will take place as soon as July 26, with Burnley facing the prospect of playing on six successive Thursday nights from then until August 30 to make the group stage.

While the Europa League schedule can be viewed with caution by Premier League clubs, Dyche is focusing on the positives and is looking forward to his first European campaign as a manager.

“Everyone immediately fires 50 negatives at you and they forget the fact you’re in Europe at a club like Burnley,” he said.

“I certainly haven’t forgotten that.

“I’m still a manager who’s developing, I think, so it’ll be very interesting for me.”

Burnley could potentially face a trip to Eastern Europe in the second qualifying round and the early start will see disruption to pre-season, with the players having to return nearly a week earlier than initially planned to get them up to speed for the start of competitive action.

But the Clarets have embraced every challenge they’ve faced under Dyche which has included two promotions from the Championship and establishing themselves in the Premier League.

And the Turf boss is confident the same will be true of their first taste of European action.

“I can imagine the challenge and all that it brings, not just on the pitch - the logistics, the planning, all of those sorts of things,” he said.

“So it’s good for me, it’s good for the staff, good for the team and the club.

“All of those challenges go into a new situation and we’ve had many down the years here so we’ve just got to be flexible, adaptable and kind of open-minded and not get bogged down by the outside noise.”

He added: “It’s important that we know what we’re focusing on and we stick to that because that’s served us well.”