SEAN Dyche believes even the best Scottish-based players would struggle to immediately make the step-up to England’s Premier League.

The Burnley manager, please believe me, was being a million miles from arrogance. Indeed, it has been a pleasure to deal with him these past seven days and his press conference yesterday was a joy to be at.

He was open about the ridiculous money being asked for players down south who had far from made it. Championship players now ask for Champions League wages.

And while with the greatest respect Dyche is incorrect - many of the Celtic players could play for Burnley and well above - it was interesting to hear what he had to say ahead of tonight’s game with Aberdeen.

“I would consider looking at a player in Scotland,” said Dyche. “We do have scouts up there. They are actually very well informed. The chances are the gap, at the moment, is big to go straight in to the Premier League.

“Not so much at a club likes ours. There is a bit of leeway here. But at the bigger clubs you have to straight away hit the ground.

“It would be interesting to see. When I was growing up, when the finances were different, there were a lot of Scots down here, and some English up there, but that seems to have gone with the money.

“Some get the chance at a bit of a lower level and work their way up. I don’t think there is a definitive reason for that because, as I said, the young players up there are beginning to show themselves.

“Andy Robertson is the obvious one from my time in management. He came from sort of nowhere to Hull.

“It’s about finding the right one who can mature into it, to find the ones who can run, grip it and mature in to the Premier League. That is not an easy thing, believe me.

“A lot of the players who have done well here, who you may or may not know, have already had a first career somewhere else before coming to the Premier League even to a club like us – and we are hardly giants.”

Burnley are a rich club in that their wage bill is ‘only’ £37m but in terms of English football remain minnows despite finishing seventh.

Dyche told the media that we would be “flummoxed” by wage demands made by - my word not his - average footballers.

What Derek McInnes would give for such first world worries, although Dyche did say: “When you look at the reality of it, how do you think we feel when we play against Manchester City? But we still take them on. We still make a game of it. We still challenge.

“The numbers are crazy, they’re crazy for any player. You can ring for a Championship player or you can ring for a League One player and the numbers are just enormous. It is certainly a seller’s market..”

Perhaps our envy is misplaced.