BURNLEY chairman Barry Kilby believes the Clarets will be strong contenders for promotion next season.

After a disappointing season, and axing 13 players at the end of the campaign, Kilby is confident manager Stan Ternent will rebuild his troops to such an extent they will be pushing for one of the top spots again.

"I really believe that if we are clever enough over the summer, we will have a team challenging for the play-offs," he said. "We want to finish as high as we can next season. But the play-offs are our aim and I think it can be done.

"We are going to have nine or 10 new players coming in over the summer but we have a good management team and I'm confident we will get some good players."

A host of names have already been linked with a move to Burnley, whether they be permanent or loan signings, including a trio of youngsters from Manchester United.

Midfielders Michael Stewart and Danny Pugh and goalkeeper Luke Steele could be targets. But Ternent always plays his cards close to his chest and, while he admits he has already held discussions with players, he is unlikely to name names until deals have been agreed.

Another player to be linked with the Clarets is Bradford City's Claus Jorgensen.

The Danish winger has rejected a new contract offer from the Bantams, but is also believed to be attracting interest from Norwich City.

Bradford chairman Gordon Gibb said: "It's safe to assume that Claus will be playing elsewhere next year.

"Claus scored some very valuable goals for which we were obviously grateful for.

"But when we made the offer we had to weigh up his pluses and minuses in terms of the squad for next season.

"We had to ask ourselves if Claus was going to be an 11-goal a season man every year. We don't think he is going to contribute that amount of goals every time so we will have to look somewhere else for that."

Meanwhile, Ipswich have handed goalkeeper Andy Marshall a free transfer as they continue to trim their squad.

"Last season was a disappointing one for Andy and we know he he can do a lot better than the form he showed," Ipswich boss Joe Royle said. "I feel a new challenge at another club would bring the best out of Andy and he agrees with me."