West Ham suffer James Tarkowski setback as Burnley stand firm over valuation

Sean Dyche has told West Ham to forget about trying to buy Burnley star James Tarkowski “on the cheap”.

West Ham have offered £27million for Tarkowski, while Leicester and Crystal Palace are also keen on the England centre-half.

Tarkowski has a £50million escape clause in his contract and Dyche insists he will not be sold for less than the Clarets’ valuation.

“The club is in a very, very strong position financially, that’s for sure,” said the Burnley boss. “So there’s no overwhelming desire to be selling players, that’s obvious.

“Does a player have a price at any club? Yes they do.

“Across the whole of football, eventually a day comes where if someone hits a certain number than all clubs, not just Burnley Football Club, have to make a decision.

“If that day comes, the chairman will make that decision. I don’t control those moments, the chairman does and the board.

“We’ll have to wait and see, but we’re in a very strong position and we’re certainly not in the business of getting rid of our best players on the cheap.

Burnley skipper Ben Mee has formed a commanding centre-half partnership with Tarkowski and does not want to see him leave.

“We want to keep him around because he’s a top-class player,” said Mee. “I enjoy playing with him and we want to keep him around for sure.

“We need him at the club for as long as possible, I certainly do anyway.”

Dyche has also told chairman Mike Garlick and his board to bankroll up to three new signings.

Burnley have had a bid rejected for Nottingham Forest’s Joe Worrall and have only signed back-up keeper Will Norris so far, despite losing Jeff Hendrick, Joe Hart, Aaron Lennon and Ben Gibson this summer.

Dyche publicly criticised the board for losing Hendrick on a Bosman and says his squad badly needs strengthening.

“It’s quite clear and quite evident that we need people in,” he said. “We lost a few last season, so we definitely need people in.

“As a player, I was one for 20 years, it’s a good feeling when you see someone coming in and you think ‘let’s see what they’ve got to offer’ and that pushes the group.

“We’re trying to affect that, but in every window it’s rare that we get business done early.

“Doing business early costs a lot of money and this club historically has not been in a situation where it wants to do that.”