NEW technical director Mike Rigg says Burnley, like all clubs, must be prepared to expect the unexpected in the January transfer window.

While the Clarets’ latest appointment has been given a long-term plan he has already started work on the current market, ready for the window opening on January 1.

But he said he is not just working on a list of targets for manager Sean Dyche, but also a list of possibilities so that Burnley are not caught out by any curveballs that the window might throw up.

“What we try to never do is react just off one position. What we try to do is try to have options for every scenario,” Rigg explained.

“So if, for example, Manchester City come in and say ‘We want to buy Ben Mee back and we’ll give you £100million’, we’ve got to be in a position where, all right, we never thought we were going to lose Ben Mee, but what’s our plan?

“It’s no good me going back (to the manager) and saying ‘we didn’t think of that because we were focusing on a defensive central midfielder’. So the system has to be there to plan for all eventualities.

“And because everybody knows what the transfer window is like, how you start off at the start looks completely different to how it looks at the end, and that’s at every club.

“You’ve got to cover all bases and expect the unexpected.

“Touch wood (any changes) that happen to your squad happen through design. But they can happen through people agitating moves, through injuries, and I think what we’ve got to make sure that we do over the longer term is not get caught out, and you do that by planning. That’s all about a system and a process.”

He added: “People question ‘why are you doing your business so late?’, but some of it you’re not planning for.

“The structure that we put in place will support a process, and ultimately at the top that’s about our strategy and acquisition and that varies from club to club. Do you want to do your business early in the window, where you think you’re paying more money, but then towards the end of the window you find buying the same player is 50 per cent more expensive.

“It’s just a game of poker.”

But while Rigg admits January is a notoriously difficult window to work in, he understands fans’ thirst for mid-season signings.

“It’s important of everyone. But what you don’t want to do is put the club at risk by doing business in January that is reacting off a bit of panic and we’re bringing in players that aren’t as good as what we’ve got. You don’t just want to bring in another body,” he said.

“Understandably the fans do want to see more players, but we want to make sure there are better players, that are good business, that also doesn’t put the club at a football and financial risk.

“What we don’t want to do is get towards the end of the window or get to the summer and then regret doing certain business in January that’s going to stop us from doing more business in the summer.

“It’s a fine balancing act.

“I get completely the fans want to see ambition and more players, and if we can do that, of course we want to strengthen the team, but we also need to manage expectations that the bigger picture is we don’t want to get to the summer and have regrets about various things in January."