BURNLEY’S January transfer budget will only stretch to one big money signing.

The Clarets were closing in on top target Ashley Barnes last night, after agreeing a fee with Brighton late on Wednesday.

After the clubs settled on a £750,000 fee, plus add-ons, the striker had personal talks and a medical at Gawthorpe.

Both are believed to have been successful, with the move set to be made official this morning, despite fears that Leeds United could hijack the bid.

While Nakhi Wells remained an option as the process was ongoing yesterday, they are not in a position to yesterday ahead of tomorrow’s game at Yeovil Town.

The ongoing process meant manager Sean Dyche, who has previously not spent money on a transfer fee in almost 15 months as Burnley boss, did not restrict his search for targets.

But although there was interest in Bradford City striker Nahki Wells, with the Clarets asking to be kept in the loop on any developments regarding the Bermudian, they are not in a position to be able to afford both players.

Huddersfield Town have already had a £1.25million offer turned down.

After reporting a £7.6million loss for the last financial year, before the summer sale of Charlie Austin, Burnley are still in the process of clawing back the deficit in an effort to break even this season.

As such, any further transfer fees are expected to be significantly smaller.

“I think that’s probable,” said Dyche, who would also have the option to use the loan market.

“We’ve not been blessed with spending power but there are reasons for that. There’s never an excuse, it’s just a reality of our football club and making sure that it’s in good shape, which it is financially.

“It’s like anything, we have to show interest in varying different situations because we’re not always powerful enough (financially) to make it happen there and then by just adding and adding and adding.

“We’ve had to monitor the situation, among others. We feel it’s appropriate for our club at this time and providing it (Barnes) goes through we really like the player.

“We’re in a slightly longer term process as regards the dialogue between two clubs. We had them with several clubs and this one at the moment is looking the one that we were hoping for.

"It's one that we've been working on for a while now.

"The agreement between the clubs came late (on Wednesday) night."

Of the prospect of having Barnes in the ranks for the weekend's Championship clash, Dyche said: "Possibly, it depends on all the boxes being ticked. We're hopeful there's at least a chance of that.”

Meanwhile, Dyche is not confident of having all of the trio who missed last weekend’s FA Cup defeat at Southampton available for tomorrow’s first trip to Huish Park.

Michael Duff was rested, Michael Kightly was sidelined with a knee injury and Ben Mee was ruled out with a thigh strain.

“Duffo’s been pretty good, his was more a case of knocks and bruises and getting on top of things,” said the Burnley boss.

“Kights needed his knee to settle down. He hasn’t trained with the group but that’s partly precautionary so we’re hopeful that he will be back training with us today.

“Ben Mee is a real maybe for him to be involved at the weekend. We’ll probably have to make a judgement call on that ourselves as much as anything.

“We need it right.”