THE next three weeks can’t come quick enough now. I can’t wait for the first game of the season.

Pre-season is good for fans to see the players again but it’s all about that start to the season, that first game at home to Chelsea on August 18.

The players are looking forward to it as much as I am and there is a real feelgood factor about the club at the moment.

You’d expect that because everyone is still on a massive high from promotion.

If you can’t look forward to playing in the Premier League there would be something wrong, and it looks like the players have all come back raring to go. There’s no expectation on them and they have no fear.

That feelgood factor can really help you at the start of the season, and they’ve brought in some good players with Premier League experience too like Steven Reid and Matt Taylor.

They had a real team ethic and togetherness last season and they will need that tenfold this season.

It will be a tough season of course, and everyone knows that.

In seven out of 10 games they will be playing teams who are stronger than them and it’s not going to be easy.

There might be one or two games where they get a hammering but it’s about not worrying about that.

There will be some games, particularly away games, where they know they haven’t got much chance. But that doesn’t mean they’ll lie down.

The home form needs to be better than it was last time in the Premier League, although we did surprise one or two teams at Turf Moor and get some notable victories.

The away form is key too, going away to places and trying to pick up a point here and there.

The manager will probably be looking at it in blocks of games.

If they can get to the 20-point mark by Christmas I think that will be a good position to be in, then you need four or five wins to stay up from there.

They will want be aiming for the 40-point mark so if they can get to 20 points as quickly as possible, hopefully before Christmas, that will put them in a decent position.

I think the squad is quite strong in most areas now. I always think you can never have enough strikers though so I’d still maybe look at bringing in one more if the opportunity arises.

There were reports that they had bid £8m for Troy Deeney this week, which the club denied.

A fee of £8m is a lot of money for a club like Burnley to pay. Sean Dyche will know Deeney from Watford but £8m is an awful lot of money.

I think they can be looking maybe at the loan market to bring someone in for a fraction of that price.

It’s just a case of seeing what opportunities arise before the end of the window.