BURNLEY boss Stan Ternent wants to bring new players into his squad and the board will do everything they can to back him.

Club chairman Barry Kilby promised today: "The board is now looking at what flexibility we have to help Stan improve the team.

"We have got a break of two weeks and we are assessing the situation to see where we go from here. The door is not shut, it is just a question of what we can afford and what we can't afford."

Unlike big-spending rivals like Dave Jones at Wolves or Kevin Keegan at Manchester City Ternent knows he has not got an open cheque book to flash around.

The manager looked at the figures produced by the Lancashire Evening Telegraph showing the relative costs of the three sides at the top of the first division and admitted: "It really brings home our situation when you see it in black and white.

"It is a position I am well aware of and I knew what it was like when I came to the club. In all fairness the board has done really well for me.

"They came in and picked up some outstanding debts but any time I have wanted some money I have not had a problem.

"If there is to be some money available for me that is great but if there isn't, that's okay too. I will just get on and do the job. Whatever way they want me to manage the club is fine.

"But I am an ambitious manager, I do want to manage in the Premiership and I want to do that with Burnley."

Having been forced to cut his cloth both at Bury and at Turf Moor, Ternent is not bleating about the situation, simply being realistic. After the defeat at West Brom on Saturday he spoke of the need to add to his resources but he knows life is not that simple. All I can do now is point out the current situation," he said. "We are second in the league and have made a good start, but that is all. We just have to decide whether we want to take advantage of the situation and really go for it.

"We have got to the stage now where, if I am going to bring in better players than I have got, it will cost decent money.

"You are not just talking about transfer fees, it is wages as well. In a way we are victims of our own success, we have got to this stage quite quickly.

"Last year we came up and found we could handle it in the first division. I came here with a five year plan to see the club as an established first division club but we are running in front of that. It is very difficult for us if we have got key players missing. At Liverpool if Michael Owen is out, Robbie Fowler comes in, we don't have that situation.

"In years to come we might but not now."

The Burnley boss is already up around his budget for the year and he is aware that he is relying on the board if there is to be more money made available.

"I will not just spend money now and get in trouble because we have missed the boat," he said. "You only have to look at clubs like Sheffield Wednesday and QPR to see what problems can lie ahead.

"I would never do anything like that as it would be irresponsible. Look at the other sides in the division and it is a tall order to ask us to get promotion. But I could have all the money in the world and I would not go out there and get second best.

"Without much money free transfers, Bosmans or loan players come into the equation because there is not a manager in the country who would not take the opportunity to strengthen his squad. I just don't know when anything will happen."