FORMER Clarets defender Ian Brennan has hailed Sean Dyche as a ‘brilliant ambassador for the town and the club’.

And Brennan, a member of the last Burnley side to secure top flight survival in 1975 and now a Turf Moor season ticket holder, believes keeping Dyche out of the clutches of Crystal Palace is going to be key to how the Clarets fare next season.

Palace are still on the hunt for a replacement for Sam Allardyce, who resigned almost a month ago, with Dyche, Frank de Boer and Mauricio Pellegrino all on the shortlist for the Selhurst Park job.

And Brennan is in no doubt how severe a blow it would be for Burnley to lose Dyche less than two weeks before the players return for pre-season.

“I just hope that Sean stays because he is one heck of a manager,” the former left-back said. “Sean is the glue that holds it all together. Players will come to Burnley because of him, players will stay at Burnley because of him, and if he goes you’re going to lose perhaps the nucleus of the team as well as the staff.

“He will take his physios and coaches, one or two players who are in two minds at the moment will end up leaving, other people won’t come.

“For what he’s done you just hope and pray that he stays.”

Dyche has been in charge at Turf Moor since October 2012 and in that time has led Burnley to two promotions from the Championship, including a the title win in 20116, and now back-to-back top flight seasons for the first time in more than four decades.

But Brennan believes he offers far more than just success on the pitch.

He added: “He’s good for the town. He does no end of interviews, Q and As and whatever else with different people in different areas,

“He’s a brilliant ambassador for the town and the club. The development of the club owes a lot to him, I can’t speak highly enough of him.”

Dyche’s influence at Burnley has stretched beyond matters on the pitch. He played a key role in the £10.6million redevelopment of the Gawthorpe training centre, something which Brennan hopes might keep him with the Clarets a little longer yet.

“He’s been such an integral part of the development of the club, look at Gawthorpe, from a personal point of view of what he’s done there with the development surely he wants to stop another year to reap the benefits of that and what he’s achieved there,” he added.

“He’s ambitious but he seems very level headed. If he was a foreign manager he might have a chance of a top six club. Because he’s a British manager he can only look at a certain area.”