FRANK Sinclair has urged Burnley to reject any further bids for Michael Keane and try and hold on their best players ahead of the Clarets' Premier League return.

Keane has been the subject of strong interest from Premier League champions Leicester City, another of Sinclair's former clubs, this week, with Burnley already rejecting a bid that could total £15million.

While the Clarets are understood to be determined to resist any further moves from the Foxes for Keane, Claudio Ranieri is unlikely to give up the chase just yet and a new bid could be forthcoming to Turf Moor.

But Sinclair, who played 102 games for Burnley after moving to the club from Leicester, believes they should do all they can to try and keep Manchester United academy graduate Keane at the club.

"With the new money that has come into the club I don’t think Burnley are in a position where they need to sell," said the 44-year-old.

"Holding on to your best players is paramount if you want to build. You’ve got to build with your best players at the club and bring in even better players and I’m sure the manager will be working on that."

Keane, 23, started 44 league fixtures for the Clarets last season as they won the Championship title and secured an immediate Premier League return.

He played 27 times for the Foxes in a loan spell at the King Power Stadium in 2012/13 and remains highly-rated in the East Midlands, especially by Leicester's influential head of recruitment Steve Walsh.

With Wes Morgan and Robert Huth both the wrong side of 30, and Morgan returning from another hectic summer of international duty with Jamaica, Ranieri is keen to add younger defensive reinforcements to his squad, with Keane emerging as a key target.

But Sinclair, who spent six years with Leicester, believes Burnley should be looking to add to their squad rather than see players leave, and surviving in the Premier League this season could be key to their recruitment in the future.

"It helps with the recruitment if you can stay up," he said. "If you’re a club that is going up and down you lose your best players and recruitment becomes harder.

"If they can stay up this season and build from there you can attract better players, that’s the case the longer you are in the Premier League and you can build from there."

And while Leicester may be keen to sign one of Burnley's best players, Sinclair believes the Clarets can look to the King Power Stadium for inspiration this season.

"The finances have improved through being in the Premier League previously and it’s a great season to come back into the league with all the money coming into it," he said.

"Hopefully they can stand with the big guys this season. Look at Leicester last season, they narrowly avoided relegation and then went and won the league comfortably, it gives hope to all of these so-called smaller clubs to believe that they can achieve and stand with the bigger clubs in the country."