FINANCES are again proving to be the big frustration for Sean Dyche when it comes to the transfer market.

Despite three key players leaving in the summer in goalkeeper Joe Hart and midfielders Jeff Hendrick and Aaron Lennon, Wolves goalkeeper Will Norris is the only new arrival so far.

Time is of the essence, with the Clarets' season kicking off in the Carabao Cup on Thursday night, at home to Sheffield United (kick-off 5.30pm), followed by their first Premier League game of 2020/21 away to Leicester City on Sunday.

But despite a thin squad, Burnley don't yet seem any nearer landing any of their targets.

“The main difficulty is finance, it has always been difficult here,” said Dyche.

“It’s a challenge, we know that, the group needs reinforcements as we’ve lost players at the end of lockdown, good players who have served the club well.

“We are looking but it is not an easy situation when you are looking at the finances.

“We have done well in bringing in players who can challenge what we have here or we can mould into what we do here as well as what you would probably recognise as starters.

“We have found a way of making it work, the challenge is getting harder each season.”

Remarkably, Dyche has not been given any indication of the budget he needs to operate with.

But he explained that is nothing new.

“It’s always a question mark. We don’t do budgets, I don’t know what the budget is, I’ve never had a budget here in eight years. We’ll just have to wait and see how far we can push it," said the Burnley boss.

“Doing business early costs a lot of money and this club historically has not been in a situation where it wants to do that.

“That’s been well documented for nearly eight years. It’s not a new challenge, but it is a challenge because we’re not getting the time to work with the players and integrate them. That’s the point where it goes out of my hands.

“I have spoken about the guidelines here before and they’re pretty tough. There’s a way the chairman and the board want the club to run. I understand it, I’ve been here a long time and I’ve spoken about stretching that for two or three seasons now."