SELLING Michael Keane to Premier League champions Leicester City was never an option for Burnley this summer, boss Sean Dyche has revealed.

The Foxes, who host the Clarets tomorrow, failed with a £15million bid for the 23-year-old during the transfer window and Dyche’s insistence that Keane was going nowhere eventually saw Claudio Ranieri’s side abandon their pursuit of the defender.

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And the Burnley boss is now looking to add to his squad as he refused to rule out a move for free agent Stephane Sessegnon. The 32-year-old was released by West Brom in the summer.

Dyche said he was ‘open minded’ about bringing in out-of-contract players at this stage of the season while expressing his delight at keeping Keane.

The defender rejected a new four-year contract at Turf Moor this summer amid interest from the champions, but he has two years remaining on his existing deal and Dyche said cashing in on the defender was never an option.

“It was simple, we were never going to sell him,” said the Clarets chief. “It’s important to keep all of your best players and he’s amongst a group of very good players here I think.

“That’s the good thing about being where we are at. We haven’t got riches beyond compare to throw around but we are strong enough financially to not have to sell players.”

But Dyche did admit that, at some point, the club is likely to have to part with their prize assets.

“Their day will come,” he said. “It’s the nature of this club, generally speaking it will sell players because it always historically has done. No matter how much money you have in the bank it will never be enough.

“The club will eventually have to sell players whenever that day comes, but the good news is we’re not under pressure to do that now and we probably won’t be for a while. If we decided to do it will be for business planning and player planning, not because we have to.”

Having remained at Burnley beyond the transfer window Keane has started the season in fine form, He has still made only 26 Premier League appearances in his career and Dyche, who also praised third choice centre half James Tarkowski, believes Keane still has plenty of room for improvement.

“He’s still developing for me. I was a centre half and I know that you learn the game,” he said.

“You don’t see many young centre halves playing at any level but particularly at ours, at the highest level.

“He’s getting older now but he was playing in the Premier League with us last time.

“He’s still learning and learning very well and developing well. We’ve got a good little group for that.

“Tarky is doing brilliantly, I really like Tarky, it’s just that he’s got two other centre halves who are playing well.”

Meanwhile former Sunderland man Sessegnon has been linked with a switch to Turf Moor this week, and asked if that deal was possible Dyche, who admits he is already planning his January transfer business, said: “We’re on the lookout for if anything comes our way. We’ve got to be open minded to any situation.

“If it’s something we think can affect us of course we’re open minded, whether it’s him or anyone else.

“We’re pre-planning (for January). What have we learnt from the last one? Get your wallet out. It’s about can you do it? Can you afford to do it? We’ve got have an eye on that moving forward to the next window.

“That’s our main thought at the moment.”