Yankee needs attention for some time (4)
I believe the answer is:
year
'some time' is the definition.
(year is a unit of time)
'yankee needs attention' is the wordplay.
'yankee' becomes 'Y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'needs' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'attention' becomes 'ear' (having someone's ear is having their attention).
'y'+'ear'='YEAR'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for year that I've seen before include "Time for earth to go round sun" , "Time taken by a planet to orbit the sun" , "Complete cycle of seasons" , "Full calendar?" , "Division of school" .)