I WAS delighted to see Michael Keane get his England call-up last week, it was about time.

Hopefully he has impressed while he’s been with the squad with his attitude and performances in training.

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If he does that then hopefully he can stay there because he deserves it. Him and Ben Mee have been superb at the back and they are the reason why teams are coming to Burnley and struggling to break us down.

I’m sure it’s been a great week for Keane. There’s some really special players in that England squad, so to train with them is great for him. He can learn from them and see what it’s all about.

He’s been at United but he’s up there with these guys now. It’s not like at United when he was a young kid learning, he’s in that squad on a par with these guys now.

I’m sure having Tom Heaton there helped, it’s good to know somebody in the squad. Hopefully he will come back full of confidence and be flying at Southampton.

With the form Keane has been in and now with his England call-up, it does mean there is going to be a decision that needs to be made on his future at some point. Burnley are going to have a dilemma, but I don’t think it will be in January.

No matter where the club is at the turn of the year, be it mid-table or struggling towards the bottom, they need to keep that squad together.

It will be in the summer when the decision has to be made. There was interest in Keane in the summer and Burnley fended them off, but it will be different now because he’s not only produced it at Championship level he’s doing it in the Premier League now.

Burnley can put themselves in a good position to negotiate by having a good season and staying up, which I believe they will. His stock will rise as well if he helps Burnley stay up. If the worst happened and they went down then the player would be itching to leave and Burnley could have their hand forced a bit, but I don’t think that will happen.

If he’s going to go let’s get good money and strengthen the squad.

On to this weekend and Southampton away is a tricky game, but Burnley need to find a way to pick up points on the road. It’s been a weakness for them in the Premier League.

I think with this new formation, if they can be as solid as they were against Arsenal, then I think they can get results on the road. It didn’t quite work against Leicester but they’ve got to grips with it now and it looks good.

When you play it away from home you need to make sure you don’t drop too deep, you can’t leave Sam Vokes isolated, the midfield and the wingers need to stay within touching distance of him.