CLARETS chairman Mike Garlick hasn’t ruled out foreign investment at Turf Moor.

Garlick said the club were regularly fielding calls from parties interested in investing in Burnley, but the chairman is confident that the current board remain well placed to match the growth of the club.

The Clarets are an attractive proposition for foreign investors having just booked a second successive season in the Premier League while the club is also debt free.

Garlick admits there may come a time when the board hit a ceiling and have to consider fresh investment, but he said that is not imminent.

“We’re one of three or four clubs now who are British owned in the Premier League, but we get calls all the time,” Garlick said of interest from abroad while the Clarets chairman also ruled out any immediate plans to redevelop Turf Moor.

“If you look and think you want to push for the top seven, you’d have to get outside investment. I don’t think we’re quite at that phase yet.

“It’s difficult to bottom out whether an owner is going to be bad if they are foreign, how do you do your due diligence? Not just whether they’ve got a big cheque to buy the club, but how they are going to behave.

“But there are good foreign owners, you’ve just got to be very careful.”

“If we (the current board) stay here then you’d hit a ceiling at some point, and have to make that decision as to how do we kick on, keep everyone motivated and keep the fans excited.

“Everyone wants to win, but let’s not get carried away, if we can stay in the Premier League, that’s the number one mission right now.”

Garlick said Burnley had budgeted ‘£8million or £9million’ this season for further improvement work at the training ground and some work at Turf Moor, including new and improved disabled access facilities.

But he said there were no plans on the table to expand the capacity, currently just over 22,500, in the near future.

“I’ve seen a bit of speculation about whether we’re going to be expanding the stadium. There aren’t any short to medium term plans to do that,” he added.

“The last time we made any infrastructure changes like that was back in 1972 or ‘73 and we built the Bob Lord Stand.

“I think it became known as the Martin Dobson Stand because we had to sell Martin Dobson to pay for it and a couple of years later we got relegated.

“Above the improvements we’ve talked about everything else has to go on the pitch strengthening the team to make sure we stay in the Premier League.”

If Burnley can achieve that target of becoming a regular force in the top flight then Garlick could see a time when the ground needs to be expanded, but accepts that will be dependant on success.

“In five years time if we’re locking 5,000 people out for every game we’re going to have to do something, of course we are. But short to medium term we have to get established as a Premier League club.

“We will get more people down here, but the way we’ll get that is success on the pitch.

“That’s a gradual process. You don’t suddenly leap up four of five places every year. It’s slow, steady evolution, not revolution.

“If that means in five years time we’re getting 30,000 people at Turf Moor then we’ll expand accordingly.”