FORTUNATELY or unfortunately, depending on how you prefer to look at it, money talks in football.

And it looks like Burnley will have more to say in the new season with news of the lengths director Brendan Flood is prepared to go to in a bid to make the Clarets a stronger Championship force.

It seems like his approach will be one that builds over time and develops - a long-term investment - rather than throwing millions and millions of pounds at the club straight away.

I'm no businessman, but I'm not sure which is the best way to go.

People want instant results, and you only have to look at the likes of Derby and Blackpool to see what can be achieved by spending big.

Blackpool, with the backing of Latvians, have done remarkably well to earn promotion to the Championship on the back of winning 10 on the bounce and setting a new club record.

You would assume they are going to spend big again for next season because nobody goes up or sustains success on a shoestring anymore. Maybe once in a blue moon, but if you're going to be successful or challenge in any way you're going to have to loosen the purse strings.

Derby have spent loads and got it all back with promotion to the Premiership. Admittedly, I think it will be a struggle for them on the pitch next season, but they'll be alright financially.

You've got to speculate to accumulate, and I reckon £10 million will be an appropriate figure for Burnley.

Some people might think that's a lot, but fans don't always understand the implication of wages. Say a player signs a three-year contract at £5,000 a week - that's three-quarters of a million pounds. Some players could sign four-year deals for more money than that.

Having said all that, I would rather have someone like Brendan on board than a Latvian or a Russian because they can pull the money out as quickly as they put it in. And then where do you stand?

He also seems keen to redevelop Turf Moor, and if I was him I would start with the Cricket Field Stand because we must be the only team in the league that runs into the away fans and doesn't have home fans behind both goals.