Burnley boss Sean Dyche believes tying players like Ashley Barnes down to new deals is a vital part of the club’s model.

The striker has signed an extended deal through to the summer of 2022, meaning a man who arrived at the club from Brighton in January 2014 is staying put for the foreseeable future.

With eyes already turning towards the January transfer window, Dyche thinks working on the futures of those already in the building is as important as any incoming business in the new year, the Clarets boss taking pride in how his squad has developed in recent years with a relatively modest budget.

“It has to be (as important) because it’s unlikely someone will give me an open chequebook to go and affect everything,” he said ahead of Saturday’s meeting with West Ham.

“It’s about future-proofing from within not just the outside. You don’t want to be losing your best players.

“It’s very difficult, it’s a very difficult model to make work, year after year after year.

“I’m not just saying it because it’s me, the staff and players that do it, I’m just being honest.

“Most teams, not all, throw a very substantial amount of money at these things.

“I think the other week the chairman said we’ve got an £87million net spend.

“We brought in half a billion quid in seven years. So I think £87million isn’t too bad. And we’ve still got all those assets on the pitch. We’ve done alright on the business side of things.”

Barnes, who ultimately cost the Clarets around £750,000, turned 30 last week but Dyche is only concerned about what he’s seeing from players on the pitch, rather than looking at their age.

“We have to make sure we’re developing internally, no matter what the age of the player, it’s not relevant,” he said.

“It’s if they can keep moving, keep shifting, can they stay hungry for what the challenge is of being in the Premier League?

“That’s a massive thing, the edge that you need to play.

“You’ve got to retain the edge and that’s what we try here is keeping that edge all the time.”

The Clarets boss believes his frontman is in a peak period in his career having developed into the club’s leading Premier League goalscorer, 36 in total, in his approaching six years at the club.

“I think he understands the game better,” said Dyche.  

“It’s not just his own game, he’s just 30 and you get to that rounded situation. It’s a good window because you’re mentally more secure in yourself, physically you should be in good shape and know how to look after yourself with all the strength and conditioning and all that.

“You’ve also got a knowledge depth that can allow you different ways of operating.

“When you’re playing naturally you’ll just do the right things through years of what you’ve learnt. I think he’s finding a healthy mixture, so are a number of players, not just him.”