BURNLEY boss Stan Ternent is not looking to cash in on Glen Little this summer to finance a promotion push next season.
Ternent has stressed again that Little is not for sale.
However, he admits that approaches for the mercurial winger are inevitable if he continues to produce the form he has displayed in the last two seasons at Turf Moor.
"As far as I am concerned Glen Little is not for sale," said Ternent.
"He is an integral part of Burnley Football Club.
"When I came to the club I signed Glen Little, Paul Weller, Paul Smith, Andy Cooke and Chris Brass on three-year contracts.
"I am not in the business of selling my best players."
However, the nature of the game dictates that higher ranked clubs will express an interest in a potential match-winner like Little.
"Sooner or later if he maintains the progress he's making that will happen. You can't stop that happening," admitted Ternent,
And in such a scenario, Ternent outlined the three factors that would determine a player's future.
He added: "I have got more chance of being a successful manager if I keep my best players so from a selfish point of view I don't want to sell any of them. "The second thing is the club may or may not need the money. If it doesn't then we keep them. If it does then a decision has to be made.
"Thirdly, do you stop players going to the Premiership?
"These are the things that go through your mind. If I denied him the opportunity to do that would the player give his all for Burnley?"
Little attracted a £1 million bid from First Division Port Vale earlier this season which was rebuffed by the Clarets.
But Ternent confirmed that there had been no approach for the player from Division One champions Sunderland, where Little's former manager Adrian Heath is on Peter Reid's coaching staff.
"I speak to Peter Reid every day. He's a friend of mine and he has never asked about Glen Little," said the Burnley boss.
Little, whose season was interrupted half-way through by a hernia operation and subsequent groin injury, is likely to return for the Clarets at Stoke City on Saturday after a bout of flu and a one-match ban which has kept him out of the starting line-up in the last three games.
That would mean some tinkering to the Burnley line-up on the back of two impressive performances against Blackpool and Bournemouth.
But Ternent, also expected to have Andy Payton back on duty at Stoke, insisted: "I wish I had another five or six problems like finding a place for Glen Little to play. I would be well away." Ternent was the guest at a meeting of the Accrington Clarets last night for an entertaining question-and-answer session.
Afterwards members presented the Burnley manager with a cheque for £100 raised on the evening towards the fund set up to finance improvements at the Clarets Gawthorpe training ground.
An auctioned programme from the 1962 FA Cup final between Burnley and Spurs also raised £38.
And Ternent revealed that the fund total stands at almost £2000 just a couple of weeks after an account was opened.
Scottish Premier League strugglers Dunfermline have expressed an interest in Clarets defender Brian Reid, according to reports north of the border.
However, there has been no contact between the clubs and Stan Ternent has offered the former Rangers and Greenock Morton centre-back a new contract to stay on after the summer.
And although Reid has not yet put pen-to-paper, he has previously indicated that all being equal he would like to continue his career at Turf Moor.
"I made him an offer. He's out of contract until the end of June and it's up to him. I don't think there's any secret about it that I want him to stay," said Ternent.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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