ADRIAN Heath (pictured) today dismissed a report that he had held transfer talks with Sunderland defender John Kay.

The vastly-experienced 32-year-old right back has been made available on a free transfer by Roker Park boss Peter Reid.

But the Burnley manager said today: "I am aware of the fact that Kay is available because I was speaking to Peter Reid and he tipped me off about him being free.

"That's as far as it goes. I certainly haven't had any talks with him and there's nothing else happening at the moment."

Kay's career at Roker has been severely disrupted in the past two and a half years by two broken legs.

But he has battled back with a lot of determination and Reid said today: "He is a smashing lad and he will have no problems getting fixed up with another club."

Sunderland-born Kay began his career with Arsenal before making his mark at Wimbledon.

He moved to Roker some nine years ago and played more than 200 senior games for them.

Heath has yet to make his first major signing for Burnley, but he refuses to be rushed with the liklihood that there will be a lot of players available this summer.

That is the major reason why he has not pushed the Charlie Bishop move through, even though a fee of around £80,000 was agreed with Barnsley some time ago.

It is not a case of Bishop stalling on the deal, as has been suggested - more a matter of a mutual agreement to let it ride for the moment.

"We haven't been able to agree terms as such but that's not such a stumbling block," said the manager.

"I want to make sure everything is right when it comes to signing players and it is going to cost what we consider to be a lot of money.

"Charlie did a brilliant job for us and we have to accept we might lose him if someone else comes in for him. I have told him that if he gets a better offer he has to take it.

"But I am not going to be rushed. I want to see what is available in the summer. For example, there are three or four Premiership players who have become available.

"That's how it stands at the moment."

Heath won't rule out an eventual deal with Bishop. But, clearly, he is aware that even better quality defenders might come onto the market while Bishop, understandably, wants to obtain the best terms he can - and that might be offered by someone else.

So the deal has cooled for the time being rather than been completely written off.

Burnley's youngsters headed for Holland today to take part in an international youth tournament.

Among the teams in their group are AZ 67 Alkmaar and competition hosts Uitgeest, while also taking part are other clubs from Holland, Rumania, Scotland and England.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.