WHY DYCHE HAS TO BE MY MANAGER OF THE YEAR
THE first time that I crossed paths with Sean Dyche, the last thing I wanted to do was come away and give him compliments.
It was December 2001 and Portsmouth, who I was playing for at the time, had a trip to Millwall. You can imagine that a freezing cold Thursday evening at The Den was never going to be a game for the purists.ists.
I was a young strikerriker trying to make my way and Seann ( right) had the task of marking me.
There is no other way to say it: he was a big, horrible centre half and he let me know he was theree from the first minute.te. Millwall won 1-0 andnd I don’t remember gettingtting a kick of the ball. I do, however, remember getting kicked plenty of times by Sean. No, it wasn’t a great night.
What was a great night, on the other hand, was Kasabian’s show at the King Power Stadium in May 2016. I wasn’t going to miss the gig, but I didn’t expect to bump into Sean next to the stage. I had no clue that he liked the ‘right’ music and I came away thinking he must be all right!
In all seriousness, he has proven himself to be more than all right. For what he has achieved this season, there is every reason to believe that the Manager of the Year is not the man in charge at the Etihad Stadium (Pep Guardiola) but the one who is working wonders at Turf Moor. I’m not trying to belittle Guardiola. I’ve said consistently in my columns all season that his Manchester City team are one of the finest the Premier League has ever seen, one that rightfully sits next to Manchester United’s Treble winners of 1999 and Arsenal’s Invincibles. For the style of football, the points they have collected and the numnumber of goals they have scored, Guardiola — iif the League Managers agManagers Association cchooses him — will bbe a worthy recipient erecipient of the award. What Sean has done at Burnley, tthough, is remarkable. aremarkable. A good result in one of their last twtwo games, tomorrow at AArsenal or home next week to Bournemouth, mouthBournemouth, and they will be guaranteed seventh place. You should not underestimate what an incredible achievement that is. Look at Everton, the team directly behind them. They spent a fortune last summer to try to break into the top six. Burnley’s budget is a fraction of what they have available at Goodison Park. But what Burnley lack in finance, they make up for in terms of chemistry. When I look at Burnley now, they remind me of what we had at Stoke City a few years ago — it is something we lacked at the start of this season and something from which we have struggled to recover. Sean has assembled a squad of players with the right work ethic, who are pulling in the right direction and fighting for each other.
He knows the value of having players who want to work and get on with things. You won’t go far wrong if your squad is united.
Unity can help you overcome all kinds of things. Just look at how many Premier League goals Burnley have scored. Their combined total of 35 is only four more than Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has managed on his own. Southampton have 35 but they are in the bottom three.
It is amazing to think they will probably qualify for the Europa League with so few goals, but the team function smoothly and are solid. I’m a big fan of James Tarkowski, for example. He is a proper defender, with whom I have had some real battles.
This week they were linked with Bristol City left back Joe Bryan. I have been following him all year — his highlight was scoring against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup — and it would not be hard to see him slotting in and helping Burnley improve again.
Everyone, of course, will expect this campaign to be a one- off and nobody will tip Burnley to do anything next season.
But that would be a misjudgment and also disrespectful to the manager, who is building something.
I might not have wanted to give Sean a compliment 17 years ago but today I can only find words of praise. Should he be named Manager of the Year, I don’t think the decision-makers will have gone far wrong.