Young stars can shine

Lafferty was this week the focus of a bid from Wolverhampton Wanderers, thought to be in the region of £1million.

The offer was immediately rejected, with Cotterill and chairman Barry Kilby both insisting they do not want to sell the 19-year-old Northern Ireland international.

Cotterill admitted he could not predict whether Wolves would return with a second bid further down the line, and acknowledged there was little he or the club could do to prevent interest from the Midlands club or any other side.

But he has stressed he is looking forward to working with talented teenagers Lafferty and McCann next season and helping them to further their development at Turf Moor.

"Kyle is a good, young player, as is Chris, and it's always something (good) for a manager when you bring a player through," Cotterill said.

"I think they are excellent young men, the pair of them. I've seen them develop over the last three years and I'm looking forward to Kyle and Chris coming back and being better this year and developing."

And Cotterill stressed that while eyebrows were raised in some quarters to Lafferty playing in a wide role, rather than a traditional attacking position at times last season, he would continue to operate in the best interests of his young proteges.

"Towards the end of last season Kyle had gone weak," he said.

"I played him in a wide midfield berth so he could come inside and shoot because playing with his back to defenders, Kyle gets buffeted.

"I'm the one who's in charge of him and he didn't have the spring in his step that he'd had six months earlier and he wasn't scoring as many goals as I would have liked."

Meanwhile, reports in the national media suggesting Cotterill has a £10million warchest are unfounded.

Millionaire director Brendan Flood is pumping an undisclosed percentage of his fortune at any one time into the club, but the budget available to the Clarets boss has never been revealed.