CLARETS boss Sean Dyche said speculation over Danny Ings future affected his performance in the 2-0 defeat at Sunderland as Burnley head into transfer deadline day insisting they will keep hold of the striker.

Dyche revealed he almost didn’t start the 22-year-old at the Stadium of Light but, having given him the nod, he withdrew him on the hour mark.

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Liverpool made a £4million bid for Ings in the 48 hours before the game, and had planned to loan him back for the rest of the season to try and clinch a deal before tonight’s transfer deadline.

But Premier League rules scuppered that option and Burnley have reinforced the message that the England Under-21 international is going nowhere today, despite being out of contract in the summer.

“I took him off because I thought it had affected him - and it’s completely out of his hands, I must make that clear,” said Dyche.

“He has been fantastic. He comes into training, he wants to learn, he wants to improve, he wants to train hard - all of the good things you want out of a young player. But he is human and I thought it was too much this week. I was almost borderline not going to play him, but because I value him and the team does, then we wanted to play him.

“He’ll have a good week’s training with us and I think that will settle everything down, the stories go away, he can crack on with being a Burnley footballer and enjoy his football.

“I don’t know how many times - the player has told everyone in the world that he’s going to be a Burnley player, we have told everyone, the chief exec has told everyone.

“The laws and the rules of the Premier League have told them that he will be here, the chairman has told them he’ll be here, probably Gus will tell you that he’ll be here - I don’t know how many more times you want us to tell you he’ll be here.

“Unless someone has got an impossible amount of money, then he will be a Burnley player.”

Dyche and chief executive Lee Hoos will be focusing on adding to the squad today. The manager is hopeful additions will arrive at Turf Moor before tonight’s 11pm deadline.

“We are active and there’s a couple of things we are hopeful on,” he said.

“There’s one that is building at the moment, but there are no guarantees.

“We are active and we’ll see where that takes us.”