ADE Akinbiyi believes Burnley can stay in the Premier League next season, if the Clarets can keep hold of Sean Dyche.

The Burnley boss has become hot property since guiding Burnley back into the top flight after only his first full season in charge.

Dyche has already been mentioned in connection with the vacant head coach position at West Brom, while he has been named high up in the bookmakers’ favourites for the Southampton post.

Although we understand there has not been contact between either club and Burnley, the links will still come as a concern for Burnley fans, who lost Owen Coyle to rivals Bolton Wanderers during their last Premier League campaign of 2009/10.

The Clarets went on to suffer relegation after the mid-season managerial change.

But Akinbiyi, who was team-mates with Dyche at Bristol City in the 1998/99 season, believes that if Dyche stays at Turf Moor, Burnley will stay up.

“The club are going to have learned from what happened last time in the Premier League and Sean knows the types of players they need to strengthen the squad,” said the former Clarets striker.

“He knows the market and he knows the players that are out there, and he’s a manager that you want to play for.

“You could see when he was playing that it was a route he would go down.

“He’s the sort of person that would always ask questions, always be taking on information so he could use it later on.”

Burnley were among the favourites for relegation at the start of last season, given their slim budget.

Dyche will again have to work within the club’s means this summer, but Akinbiyi does not see that as a problem for the former Watford boss.

“He has been used to working with limited funds and signed good players last season who got them promoted,” he said.

“He will need money to strengthen but he will spend it wisely.

“I’m not saying they need to splash out a lot of money, it’s just finding the right ones and I think Sean can do that. I think they will stay up with him.”