STEVE Cotterill today revealed that Nottingham Forest have offered Burnley two players in exchange for Robbie Blake.

Reports coming out of Nottingham claim that Forest boss Joe Kinnear this week lodged a £300,000 bid for the Clarets skipper, who scored the winner in the meeting between the two sides at Turf Moor last weekend.

However, I can reveal that no such bid was ever received and instead Kinnear, who has promised Forest fans an imminent signing, actually tried to land Blake by offering two of his own players in a straightforward swap deal.

Clarets boss Cotterill said: "Forest have offered no money at all for Robbie and even if they did, £300,000 would be a laughable valuation.

"What they have done is offer two players in exchange for Robbie. I won't name those players for fear of disrupting them, but I can tell Burnley supporters that Robbie is going nowhere!

"We do not need to sell any players and we showed that intent last summer when we turned down over £1m for Richard Chaplow.

"Why then, would we now want to offload our captain?"

Cotterill, who interrupted his preparations for today's clash at Brighton to set the record straight, added: "Keeping our players was a proviso when I took over as manager in the summer and absolutely nothing has changed."

Meanwhile, Cotterill has reiterated his intention to turn Burnley into a force again. A restrictive budget has frustrated the manager during his first six months in charge at Turf Moor, but he insists he is still aiming high this season.

He said: "This is a big test, but it has been since day one because, while certain people want to plan to just stay in the league, I don't really want to do that.

"I want to do more and I think you have to set your standards high. If you set them low, the chances are they'll be low anyway, so you have to set your standards high and then try to achieve them."

Burnley Youth team will play Norwich City at Turf Moor in the FA Youth Cup. No date has yet been set for the third round game.