SEAN Dyche is preparing to start the season with Charlie Austin, but Burnley will need to reject QPR’s advances to grant the Clarets boss his wish.

Dyche was expecting to have last season’s 28-goal top scorer available for the opening day visit of Bolton, after he warmed up with his first goals of pre-season in a 4-1 win over Sparta Rotterdam.

But QPR are understood to have made an offer to lure Austin to London, in an attempt to hijack both Nottingham Forest’s bid to land the striker and Burnley’s bid to keep him on the eve of a new campaign.

Their bid, which was rejected, fell short of the £4.5million fee Hull City agreed with Burnley during pre-season, before the move collapsed on the strength of a failed medical.

Sources close to newly relegated Rangers suggest Harry Redknapp is not the type of manager to be put off by the Tigers’ findings and would instead be more swayed by Austin’s track record for goals.

Redknapp has retained an interest in Austin for some time, with QPR linked with the marksman for months.

Since the breakdown of his proposed Premier League move, the former Swindon Town hotshot has gone on to play in the last four of Burnley’s five friendlies and scored twice against Sparta Rotterdam.

The Clarets remain hopeful of striking a new deal with the 24-year-old, who has entered the last year of his contract.

Contrary to speculation in the Midlands that Austin was undergoing a medical at Forest yesterday, the striker was training hard with the rest of the Clarets camp in preparation for Saturday’s visit of Bolton.

After biding their time, QPR last week made their interest official.

As far as Dyche is concerned at present, however, he is plotting for Austin to be in the Burnley line-up to kick-off the new campaign.

“I’ve got no thinking other than he’ll be here, unless I’m told different,” said the Burnley boss, who was encouraged to see the striker get off the mark at Turf Moor against their Dutch opponents.

“I think he’s been terrific in pre-season. A lot was going on a couple of weeks ago and it’s calmed down and he’s maintained his good work ethic and professionalism and maintained what he is and that’s a solid young man who’s learning the game.

“There were good signs again, not just his goals but his general play. I’m happy he’s here.”

Burnley have spread the goals out this summer, with their 13 summer goals shared between seven players, including five in four games for Danny Ings and two each for both Austin and midfielder Dean Marney.

“That’s every teams demand, anyone can score a goal and you can win games in many different ways,” added Dyche.

“I think they know it’s usually the front end of the pitch that scores but set pieces etc, people can score from any position and Dean’s nicked himself two – one being a thunderbolt, which was an amazing strike really.

“On Saturday it was a fantastic run into the box. “We encourage that, we want him to score goals, we want all of them to score goals, so it’s just another good sign.”