BURNLEY’s limited power in the transfer market means they can go about their business on the pitch with less expectation on them, according to boss Sean Dyche.

The Clarets matched their transfer record in the summer with the £3million capture of George Boyd, but they only spent around £6million in total, with Lukas Jutkiewicz, Michael Kightly and Marvin Sordell arriving on cut-price deals.

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Those fees, and the wages paid to players, are small fry compared to what their rivals at the bottom of the table spent.

QPR splashed out around £35million on new additions, including four players over £6million, while Leicester, who are bottom of the Premier League, spent £8million on striker Leonardo Ulloa as part of a total outlay of £11million.

Of the other teams occupying the bottom six spots in the league, West Brom spent £15million, including £10million on striker Brown Ideye, who has played 90 minutes in the Premier League just once, Crystal Palace spent around £10million, including £7million on James McArthur, a target for Dyche before he was priced out of a deal, and Hull paid out over £35million, including £10million striker Abel Hernandez.

Those fees highlight the battle facing the Clarets to build a squad capable of competing, and ultimately surviving, in the Premier League.

“I think the expectation is different,” said Dyche, “even at QPR they've spent a lot of money, they've got a lot of experience here, there will be a bigger expectation.

“But we have our own don't forget, we're very demanding as a group, I'm demanding as a manager and my staff are and my players are so we have our expectations on the inside looking out.

“We don't worry about the outside perception but we have ours and ours I can assure you is to compete every week to try to win games.”

Funds will be available for the Burnley boss to strengthen his squad in January, but again they are likely to fall some way short of those teams they are competing with for Premier League survival.

At the weekend Dyche joked that the owners had decided to give him a £250million war chest to spend next month, but he knows the reality will be very different.

"We don't speak about amounts because there's a flexibility within it,” he said.

“The reality of the markets we're in - it's not 10s of millions market for us. It' not just the fees, there's a wage bill to be considered, the wage bill has to be carried forward whatever division you're in – it has to be controlled.

“It's the reality of the club, I knew it when we came here, I knew at that stage we were reducing everything.

“Now it's different – we are loading up the areas that need help financially and improving areas, off the pitch as well. It's finding that balance as ever.

“There has been money available and there is money available. It's aligning the right people who still fit the model of the team on the pitch and the financial model off the pitch."

Despite the battle to free up funds, the manager knows that players don’t necessarily have to cost a fortune to improve his side.

“These are not always fashionable names but they're people who want to learn and develop and that can be a powerful thing,” said Dyche.

“There are some who don't necessarily have that focus but ours have got plenty of it so you can talk about all the players about how they move forward.”