SEAN Dyche will be targetting quality over quantity this summer as he looks to shape a Burnley squad capable of competing on four fronts next season.

The Clarets will face the fresh challenge of European competition next term, with their Europa League campaign beginning at the second qualifying round stage on July 26.

There has long been a school of thought that the Thursday-Sunday schedule of the Europa League can take a lot of a squad and impact on a Premier League campaign, before the FA Cup and EFL Cup are thrown into the mix.

But Dyche will avoid the prospect of stockpiling his squad to cope with that challenge next summer, preferring to look at quality additions instead during the transfer window.

The Turf Moor chief said he'd spoken to other managers at bigger clubs who had ended up with bloated squads and he wants to avoid such a situation, preferring instead to focus on keeping competition tight in every positions.

"There’s a fine balance. I spoke to managers at bigger clubs and they had to thin down their squads," Dyche said of his summer plans.

"I don’t think we’re there yet, but you do think ‘how many do we actually need?’

"So we have to mindful not to overfill the club, because you lose some of the attention and detail we want to put on the players, for them to continue maturing.

"We’ve been adaptable, we’re still working at 23 outfield players, which is quite high for us, so we don’t want to overfill it, but the main thing for me is the quality of the players.

"If you have true competition in every position, which we’ve more or less had over the season, that’s where it really works for you."

Burnley may have finished seventh in the Premier League this season, but Dyche believes they will once again be operating in a similar market this summer, targeting the next Nick Pope or James Tarkowski who can rise to the challenge.

"Ideally you want players who are either showing signs to be hungry enough for the challenge to mature into us, the obvious ones like Popey or Tarky, or players who have been there, seen it and done it slightly," the Clarets chief said.

"When you think about people like Jack Cork coming in, he got an England cap this year and he played every single minute of our Premier League season.

"That mixture of people who are thirsty and hungry to go and get better and improve and then some of the players who have been there, seen it, done it slightly and know what it is and what it offers.

"We’re open minded about that and there is a reality to our market and it’s very difficult. We’re not powerful enough to walk into every situation and make sure it happens, but we think we can make sure enough happens."