BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche said the club was left with no choice but to sell Jason Shackell, because the defender did not want to be at the club.

The promotion-winning captain had 12 months left to run on the four-year deal he signed under Eddie Howe in the summer of 2012.

But Dyche said Shackell had made it clear to him that he saw his future at Derby County, who yesterday signed the defender on a three-year deal.

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It left the Clarets trying to drive the hardest bargain possible with their Championship rivals, who are believed to have spent £3million in securing a return for their former captain, with add-ons making the deal worth significantly more.

Dyche had been determined not to lose any other players following the departure of both Danny Ings and Kieran Trippier in the summer, but said Shackell’s position at the club had become untenable.

“You can safeguard to a degree but if a player decides ‘That’s it, I’m not willing to work how you work, don’t want to be part of it’, which Jason Shackell made a decision on, well then they’re no use to you,” said the Burnley boss.

“They have to be involved in what you do, they have to be motivated in what you do, they have to be motivated for the club and what it stands for.

“Jason had just made a decision it was time for him to move to pastures new. A big part of that was the finance involved and that is the reality of the game now.

“The clubs who throw huge amounts of sums to players often get their players.

“We still feel we’re very competitive in the market, I must make it clear. We think we’re paying good sums of money to the right players, including our own players who have done well for us.”

But Dyche said they were not prepared to match Derby’s offer for a player who turns 32 in September.

“There’d been an approach a few weeks ago and Jason made it clear to me the finance on offer was too much for him to refuse,” he continued.

“It’s beyond the levels of what we feel are appropriate for our football club, and our model has moved forward considerably.

“I was told Derby are paying record contracts to some players for their situation. Bearing in mind they’ve been a Premier League club in the past they must be offering really large contracts to people.

“There comes a time when as long as we get what we think is appropriate then we would - not necessarily willingly, because he’s been a good player and a good servant to us - but he’s an older wiser pro who feels the money is irrefusable (sic).

“He was very money-motivated to go there.

“That’s when the challenge gets too high for us.

“The numbers Derby are putting around now, if anyone’s throwing money at it they certainly are, both for the players and for their situation.

“That can be a different world than even we’re in, and we’re a lot stronger than certainly over my time here.

“Derby have taken that to a whole new level, and beyond it seems.

“Likewise Middlesbrough, with (Stewart) Downing as a case in point, and possibly Jordan Rhodes.

“Some of the numbers thrown around the Championship, let alone the Premier League, it moves on and it keeps moving on.

“Even with clubs making enormous losses they still just seem to be throwing money everywhere.

“It’s an interesting one how the bigger picture thinking how football pans out financially. The smaller picture is we can only look after our own and we try to do that.

“There’s no angle to my words. Derby are allowed to do whatever they want to do, so are Middlesbrough, all of these clubs.

“We’ve got a way of working, the board want me to work in a certain manner under certain guidelines which are understandable for a club that two years ago had to sell a player. It’s a whole different situation now.

He added: “There are still competitors out there, they still want to be in the Premier League, we’ve managed to be in the Premier League twice out of the last five years, so we feel we’re still strong with our mentality and our beliefs.

“As a town, as a club, we have a one club mentality. We’ll be there ready to fight again ready to be in the Premier League, make no mistake.

“Jason was very highly motivated by the money on offer from Derby. Of course we’re not naive, there has to be a financial motivation for most players, but we feel the motivation has to be at the club, play for the club and the demands of the club. I’m a very demanding manager and I need the players to be as demanding as me and he felt it was time to not be that, or not for this club.

“We think the fee is a very high fee for that player and we were strong enough to make sure it was on our terms and not on anyone else’s terms.”