SEAN Dyche is helping to put the finishing touches to the design of the Clarets’ new £10.6million training headquarters at Gawthorpe.

The Burnley boss has been involved in meetings recently to discuss how the complex should look and he is keen to give it an ‘aspirational’ feel.

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The new facility, which is set to open next summer, will be able to accommodate all levels of the football club, rather than the first team and the youth system operating separately, and Dyche believes that will give young players something to strive for.

Dyche was involved in a meeting to further consider the set-up of the training base two days before Burnley faced Arsenal and he is impressed with how it is coming along.

“It’s really good. They are starting the aesthetics and the finish to it, that’s how far down the line it is, it’s how you want it to feel now,” said the Clarets chief.

“The structure is all there, it’s really good. It’s the finishing bits now, to give it a dress.”

It is hoped that the new training base will help the Clarets improve on their category three status under the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP).

An audit is planned for later this season which could move Burnley up to category two, thereby helping the club attract better young players and giving the development squad and youth team access to better and more regular fixtures.

But Dyche believes having the teams all inside the same building will also be a big help.

“It’s not just the facilities, but the big thing about the new building is the layers of the club can all go in the new building,” he said.

“The youth system can work out of there, the full youth system but mainly at our level the under-18s, then going into the development squad and the first team.

“It can align on the pitches and the building. We like that aspirational idea that if you’re on the furthest pitch you’re maybe at the under-18s but as you go up the ladder you’re getting closer and closer and in the building there will be levels where the youngsters will work and then they will move through the building into the first team area.

“Things like that, it’s the aspirational thinking, hopefully, that’s the plan.”

For now the first team are continuing to use their existing base and crossing the bridge at Gawthorpe to train on the pitches near to the new development, which has occasionally presented a problem with work going on at the site.

“It’s only awkward with the training because the machines are still going,” said Dyche. “It’s going to go internal soon but at the moment all the heavy stuff is out there doing the pitches and the surrounding areas.

“The landscape will be the last thing, so it won’t be finished finished in being lovely and dressed until next summer.”