CHEAP & CHEERFUL
Dyche performs yet another miracle on a shoestring to keep the Clarets in top flight
IF NEW Burnley owner Alan Pace was considering bringing in a new manager with foreign influence, a recap of Sky’s Monday Night Football would put him right.
Pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher were both vociferous in their view that the club must keep Sean Dyche.
Quite frankly, it is surprising nobody has tried to tempt him away from Turf Moor before now. Once more, the job he has done with the Clarets is nothing short of remarkable.
Their 2-0 win over Fulham on Monday – which relegated the Londoners – secured Burnley’s status as a Premier League club for the fifth season in a row.
But the Lancashire side have not just been about surviving in the top tier. They have been growing.
Three years ago they were in Europe, and they now have a fantastic new training facility at Gawthorpe.
And all achieved with a net spend of around
£58million over the past decade.
It is no wonder Pace and his consortium thought they were an attractive this has been proposition when they bought an 84 percent controlling stake in December. And Pace is adamant that the strict financial controls will continue. How Dyche has kept Burnley in the top flight is astounding given the tiny budget compared to their rivals. “They would go down,” said Neville when asked what would happen if Dyche left. “He is the most important person at that football club.” When Burnley first came up, in 2014, they were more expansive and attacking. The result? Relegation. Dyche brought them back up, in the process making them resolute – and they stayed up.
He has dealt with losing his best players, such as Danny Ings and Michael Keane, while being given little money to replace them.
This season achieved safety games to go.
They may face offers for goalkeeper Nick Pope, defender James Tarkowski and winger Dwight McNeil but they would not shine without the likes of Chris Wood, Ashley Barnes, Ben Mee and Jack Cork. But this is a squad which only survives with Dyche in charge. they with have three