Burnley manager Sean Dyche has insisted that members of his promotion-winning squad will not be surplus to requirements in the Premier League next season.
The Clarets boss has released David Edgar, Keith Treacy, Brian Stock and Nick Liversedge as he shapes his squad following promotion from the Championship.
Burnley used 23 players during the 2013-14 campaign, and Dyche has said that he is keen to add to that number.
"If you think about it rationally, in our world we've got that small a squad it's not about replacing anyone, it's just that we need more players, it's really simple," he told the Lancashire Telegraph.
"Whereas if you're the average club that go up, say like Cardiff last year with probably 27 players under contract, that's a different thing, because you are then looking at players who are probably at some point going to replace the players.
"With us it's more building a group. It's not whether they're going to play or not, it's whether the challenge of the group can bring the best out of each other moving forward, and that really is just simple facts. We haven't got big numbers and a few have gone now so we've got less numbers."
Burnley ended the Championship campaign in second place.
