THE word “veteran” doesn’t sit well with Graham Alexander. But he’s had plenty of time to get used to it seeing as, by his calculations, he’s now in his eighth year of being one.

“I think it’s 30,” said the 37-year-old, pondering at what age you reach such status in football.

“There are a few around now; I’m not the only one,” added Alexander who, is joined by seven other 30-somethings in the Clarets’ veterans category, including Robbie Blake, goalkeeper Brian Jensen and Wembley hero Wade Elliott.

Come August 15, Alexander will be the oldest outfield player in the Premier League. But the super-fit defensive midfielder doesn’t see it as a hindrance.

In fact, he’s aiming to follow in the footsteps of Gordon Strachan and, more recently, Teddy Sheringham by playing top flight football into his forties.

“I hope so, because if I do that means we’ve at least had a successful season this year and we’ve stayed up and competed,” he said.

“I don’t care about it (age) or think about it really. I just get on with my football. It’s just a number. Me and Beasty (Jensen) have a joke between ourselves, but that’s just the way I see it.

“I don’t think of myself as old. I know I am in football terms, but in life terms I’m not.

“I’ll just get on with my football and just enjoy it. That’s for other people to talk about.

“I’ve had ‘veteran’ for about six or seven years now, but I don’t mind it. I just enjoy playing football, and that’s what I’m going to do this year.”

Alexander’s career has always been played below the top division, until now.

When he made his Football League debut for Fourth Division Scunthorpe in a 3-0 win over Chesterfield in April 1991, Chesney Hawkes was enjoying his last weekend at number one with ‘The One and Only’.

He joined Luton four years later, playing predominantly in the former Division Two before moving on to Preston in March 1999, where he stayed until joining bitter rivals Burnley in November 2007.

He had two tilts at the top flight with Preston but lost out in both play-off finals, in 2001 and 2005.

A further four years later, though, it was third time lucky with the Clarets, and Coventry-born defensive midfielder is sure it will be worth the 18-year wait.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s exciting,” he said.

“As soon as the fixtures came out that’s when everyone realised what we’re up against this season.”

Meetings with four of the division’s top five, following Saturday’s opener at Stoke City, is undoubtedly a baptism of fire, but Alexander remains bullish.

“You know you’ve got to play these teams,” said the Scotland international, who has his eye on two games in particular.

“Manchester United and Liverpool are the ones I’m looking forward to because they’re the two teams I’ve never played against in my career and they’re massive games.

“They’ve been the two big clubs in my lifetime as a football supporter, as a child.”

From the outside looking in, Burnley appear disadvantaged by being the smallest town club to play in the Premier League, watched by the smallest crowd, working with the lowest budget. But Alexander believes these can be converted to strengths that the Clarets can play to.

For starters, Turf Moor will be packed to the rafters - just as it was on the unforgettable cup nights against Spurs and Arsenal last season - for each home game after selling out their 16,500 season ticket allocation.

The cold corridors and basic changing facilities too are a world away from the state-of-the-art facilities countless pampered Premier League players are regard as mandatory.

“I think we’ve got to use everything we can. People are going to expect us to get beat or get relegated, but people wrote us off for nine months last year and we proved people wrong so we’ve got to do the same again,” said Alexander.

“We need the fire in our belly to compete against the teams we’re going to come up against.

“We know how hard a task it is for any club competing in the Premier League, but for newly promoted teams who lack experience at that level it’s tough. But two teams stayed up last year from the three who went up, and we hope to emulate them.”