Miracle worker Dyche hits dizzy heights with Clarets
LOWLY Burnley are knocking on the door of the Champions League elite – just 30 years after nearly dropping out the Football League.
The club’s remarkable rise continued with Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Stoke which propelled Sean Dyche’s side to fourth – uncharted territory for the Premier League’s most unfashionable team.
Burnley’s incredible progress owes everything to Dyche, affectionately dubbed the “Ginger Mourinho” by the club’s fans.
He declared after the match he was “the proudest man in Proudsville” and it is a far cry from just 13 years ago when then chief executive Dave Edmundson was organising sponsored bike rides, celebrity dinners and even going around the town with a begging bucket to keep the club going.
With a population of just 73,500, Burnley is the smallest town to boast a Premier League club. The people of the market town voted overwhelmingly in favour of Brexit – 66.6 per cent – but the football team are doing their best to make it back into Europe.
Their average weekly wage is £26,375, a fraction of what some of the league’s top players earn, and they made a summer profit with the £49million sale of Michael Keane and Andre Gray to offset their £33m transfer spend.
The Clarets deserve credit for sticking with Dyche, who is now the third longest-serving boss in the Premier League, when they were relegated in 2015.
This season’s success is further vindication of their belief in him but Dyche, 46, refuses to take sole credit for Burnley’s rise.
He said: “The challenge for me, year on year at this club, is to keep it moving forward. We’re doing that and there are clear signs the group’s getting stronger.
“The league doesn’t lie – we’ve earned the right to be where we are. I’m proud of how the club is managed from top to bottom.
“And even when a bad day comes around you’re still proud because it’s not an easy job we all have to do.”