Burnley chaiman 'relaxed' over Sean Dyche's contract situation

But he is “relaxed” about the situation, with the longest serving manager in the Premier League in the last year of his current deal.

There was speculation in June that Dyche was set to imminently put pen to paper, and sources suggested that was highly likely.

Talks are ongoing as regards extending his remarkable tenure, but Pace admits the transfer window is currently a more pressing need.

He said: “We love Sean to death. We want Sean to be here for a long time.

“I don’t think people understand it’s not necessarily just documenting stuff and making it work, when you start talking about long periods of time.

“If it was up to me, I’d write a contract for 10 years, I don’t have a problem.

“But just think about when you’re trying to get a mortgage, if you’re doing a 20/30 year mortgage, it’s a little bit more difficult than renting a place for two weeks, and it’s an Airbnb!

“We also have collectively identified there are other priorities, because we are very comfortable with one another, I think, and we have a good thing working together.

“It is still a priority, but I wouldn’t put it as the number one priority – the window is for now.

“I’m not worried from that perspective.”

Asked whether he was relaxed about the situation, Pace added: “I am (relaxed), I was probably less relaxed when we came in, from a worrying perspective, I can be a little anxious and impatient, that’s my nature – I’d like everything done yesterday.

“I’m learning more patience because it doesn’t just happen, things have to be sorted out, but the more important side was the window and getting comfortable with each other, because if you’re doing something long term, it has to feel right for everybody.

“It hasn’t been ‘oh we’ve got to do this tomorrow’, because it has been much more important that what we have to do tomorrow is this transfer window, and get our organisation in the right spot to move forward and build our academy in the right way, scout in the right way, fill the playing slots.”

Despite only being able to bring in one outfield player so far this summer, in Stoke City centre back Nathan Collins, as well as Wales keeper Wayne Hennessey on a free transfer, Dyche has been markedly less frustrated than in previous pre-season campaigns.

And Pace feels he and the boss are in agreement as to the long-term direction of the club: “Us becoming a development organisation and really focussing and putting energy into that, and being able to look at kids at 18 and saying maybe in two, three years, maybe one if we’re lucky, they’re going to have a spot, Sean needs to be part of that and in agreement with that strategy and with those individuals.

“He needs to know about it and be comfortable and we have the right people in place.

“Otherwise, do you sign an agreement for a year or two and say ‘I’m off?’ That’s not what we’re about, ‘I’m here for the long term, because I believe in it and this is what it looks like and we are all on the same page’.

“Yes, I do think we’re on the same page, but I think we’ve had to prove it.

“Go by what I do, not what I say, and in fairness, he’s had to see that from us, ‘are they going to support, to develop kids and do what they need to do to support me in the window?’.

“That’s for him to decide if we’re living up to that, but I believe we’re on the same page and executing on all of that.”