EDDIE Howe has assured fans that Burnley remain in the race to sign Jack Cork – even though he knows they now face serious competition for the midfielder.

Blackpool and Southampton have both had bids accepted for the 21-year-old, who has spent the last 18 months on loan at Burnley but still remains a Chelsea player.

Fellow Championship clubs Nottingham Forest and Leeds have also declared their interest, while it remains to be seen whether Brendan Rodgers – Cork’s former youth team and reserve team boss at Chelsea – will make a move to take the England under 21 international to Swansea following the Welsh club’s promotion to the Premier League.

But Cork has made it clear that he remains very interested in joining Burnley on a permanent basis, having enjoyed his time at Turf Moor, and Howe has reiterated his desire to make that happen.

Cork has been given permission to speak to Blackpool and Southampton, which could happen later this week, and much could yet come down to whether Burnley can match their rivals in a bid to meet Chelsea’s asking price - reported to be in the region of £750,000.

“It’s not ideal that a couple of clubs have had bids accepted but we always expected with Jack that other clubs would be interested,” said Howe.

“We're not out of the race, we're being kept informed of developments and we will just have to wait and see what happens.

“He's a good player so a lot of clubs were always going to be interested.

“But we are working hard to try to bring players in and as long as he is within our price range we will certainly do the best we can.

“We have identified our targets, we know the people we want and we are working to try to get deals done.”