BEN Mee has revealed that Eddie Howe convinced him to join Burnley ahead of a number of other clubs after yesterday moving to Turf Moor on a season-long loan from Manchester City.

Howe had been keen to bring in a left-sided centre half and Mee, who can also play at left back, is the Clarets’ first summer signing.

The 21-year-old opted to join Burnley rather than return to Leicester, despite making 15 appearances during a loan spell with the East Midlands club last season.

The England under-21 international held talks with Sven-Goran Eriksson about a second loan deal with the Foxes.

But he was impressed by Howe’s desire to bring him to Burnley, and also feared his chances of first-team football might be limited at Leicester after they snapped up centre back duo Matt Mills and Sean St Ledger.

Mee impressed Howe in a solid display in the centre of defence when the Clarets were beaten 4-0 at Leicester in April.

Now the Mancunian is looking forward to enjoy similar success at Turf Moor – a ground he often visited with a family friend as a child.

“Manchester City were willing to let me out again on loan for a season to get some games,” said the 5ft 11in defender, who will link up with his new team-mates at training for the first time today.

“They left it up to me to decide who I wanted to come to.

"There were quite a few teams that contacted them about my availability but I spoke to the manager here and I really liked him.

“I’ve been speaking to him ever since I’ve been back in training, a couple of weeks ago he was on the phone and he was really enthusiastic about me coming here.

“There’s good players here, there’s no doubt about that, and the manager here seems to think that we can do well.

"I believe him and hopefully we can get going this year.

“I’ll fight for my shirt, I’m really willing to do that and I’m excited and raring to go.”

Mee, who captained Manchester City to victory in the FA Youth Cup in 2008 and made his first-team debut in the Carling Cup last season, is the second player to swap Eastlands for Turf Moor in the past year after John Guidetti had a brief loan spell with Burnley at the end of 2010.

Guidetti encouraged Mee to move to Burnley and Howe thinks the defender - a fans’ favourite at Leicester and fondly remembered for a particularly fearsome tackle on Championship player of the year Adel Taarabt - will prove an important addition.

“He’s an outstanding young player with a fantastic pedigree,” Howe said.

“I’ve known about Ben for a long time and I thought he really impressed against us last year for Leicester.

"He was outstanding on that day and every time I’ve seen him I’ve thought he’s done well and impressed.”

Howe is now hoping to strengthen his squad further before the first game of the season on August 6.

“It’s been a very good day, we’ve got one on the board,” he said.

“We don’t need a huge amount of players but we do need to strengthen in key areas and I think we’ve done that today.”