SEAN Dyche is expecting a busy summer as he looks to build on Burnley's successful first season back in the top flight.

The Clarets defied the odds on their return to the Premier League by avoiding the relegation fate they suffered in their previous two campaigns in the elite division in 2010 and 2015.

West Ham spoilt their end-of-season party slightly by winning 2-1 at Turf Moor on the final day but gloss could not really be taken off the club's highest league placing (16th) since 1975.

Yet Dyche does not want to stop there and insists the hard work has already begun as he plots the next step forward.

The Burnley boss said: "I started six months ago. You are learning all the time. You are adapting, learning, looking at the players, what we can do next, how we can stick roughly to what we do but mould it differently and add to it.

"Recruitment is a massive thing and that is going to be massive over the summer. That will be very important. It looks to me like it is going to be a tough market."

Dyche, who is now regarded among the club's great managers after adding this year's survival feat to his two promotions, does intend to take some time off but will never be far away from business.

"It is a break of sorts but every manager will tell you the phone is always on at some point," he said.

"I may park it during the day and check it at night and in the morning when I'm on holiday – but when I'm here it is on all the time.

"When you are not the market leaders you have to try to keep every line of communication open, you have to take every bit of information seriously. Even the stuff thrown at you from left field, you have to check out.

"That is the next challenge, not just adapting this side to what they have learned this season but adding to it where we can.

"It is not necessarily to keep replacing people, it is to add competition. You want that competitive element all the time.

"You get it from inside the group but you want people coming in; fresh faces. That competition keeps building, it pushes players on."

One player Dyche will definitely be without next season is Joey Barton, who has been released after being handed an 18-month ban by the Football Association.

The 34-year-old midfielder, who was hit with the penalty and a £30,000 fine in April after admitting breaking FA rules by placing bets on 1,260 football matches, has not been offered a new deal.

Barton has been released along with 31-year-old winger Michael Kightly ,with both men out of contract next month, while loan signing Jon Flanagan has returned to parent club Liverpool.

Dyche said: "Joey leaves us for the obvious reasons after he has again been a big part of what we have achieved this season.

"Equally, Kights has been a great servant of the club and always a tremendous person to have around the group.

"Both players have had a big effect on what we have done during their time at Turf Moor and we wish them well, as we do all those leaving this summer."

However, the club has confirmed that talks with goalkeeper Paul Robinson and midfielder George Boyd, who are also out of contract, are ongoing.