AFTER West Ham’s £16.5million strike force had helped the Hammers steal all three points from Turf Moor on Saturday, the point was made that the Ecuadorian and Senegalese internationals signed by Sam Allardyce showed the difference between an established Premier League side and one whose sole ambition is to spend another year dining at the top table.

It’s a valid statement, albeit one that Sean Dyche was keen to play down, describing it as ‘irrelevant’ after the game.

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The bold investment is clearly working for West Ham, with Diafra Sakho scoring in his last six games and Valencia netting twice so far.

No matter how the next two months go one thing is for sure, the Clarets can’t look to buy their way out of trouble, and even if they could they would probably eschew going down that route.

For every Diafra Sakho there is an Adel Taarabt, labelled as ‘three stone overweight’ by Harry Redknapp at the weekend.

Queens Park Rangers chairman Tony Fernandes said he had spoken to both Redknapp and Taarabt about their ‘embarrassing’ public fall-out, and it is certainly a salutary tale on the merits of investing in foreign talent.

Many clubs will complain of paying inflated prices for British players, but Sean Dyche’s squad is packed entirely with home-grown footballers.

Compare that to Redknapp’s QPR, a veritable league of nations at Loftus Road, with players from Senegal, Chile, South Korea, Brazil and Argentina, among others.

They may have been unfortunate to lose 3-2 to Liverpool at the weekend, but the fact is they remain below Burnley in the table.

Their away form has been awful, a sure sign of a side lacking spirit, and their work rate has been questioned. It’s an expensively assembled squad, but it’s one that is nowhere near the sum of its parts.

Compare that with Burnley, a side that is most definitely better together. Man-for-man QPR may have the better players, but they don’t have the spirit and identity that Dyche’s side do.

That is why Burnley must continue to stick with their ‘best of British’ policy, whether it be accidental so far or not.

Bringing in foreign imports to play for a club they have probably never heard of before is no guarantee of results improving.

The Premier League may not be the best league in the world, but it is certainly the biggest stage in the world for footballers, and while you are in the division you are an attraction for players who want to move into this league.

But if that status goes, then they won’t want to know next season.

The Clarets are building for the long term at the moment, and they are more than aware that going down the Queens Park Rangers route could well be a recipe for disaster.