JURGEN KOPS IT FOR BALO
The Burnley boss loves it – but he cannot help smiling ruefully about how the writing appeared to be on the wall before he had got his feet under the table in the manager’s office.
Dyche can vividly recollect those testing early days following his appointment in October 2012 when he appeared to be a dead man walking.
An army of critics wanted him out amid constant stories that Mick McCarthy and Ian Holloway were being lined up for his job.
But Dyche takes great pleasure in having turned his fortunes around with a second stint in the Premier League – and being honoured by local graffiti artist Paul Jones with that giant mural to celebrate promotion.
Dyche said: “After six months here there wasn’t that kind of mural.
“I have driven past it myself and they have done a pretty good job to be fair.
“I look very handsome. It’s a lovely gesture and it’s been well received.
“But I’m not naive. I had the first six months here and most people didn’t want me.
“I’m not doing myself down but I wasn’t their first choice as manager.
“So it’s good in a way that you can change situations as a young manager coming into the job because I was a novice hurdler. Not many STEVE MILLAR SUPER agent Mino Raiola has launched a blistering attack on Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, calling him a “sh**” over his treatment of Mario Balotelli.
The Italian international, a £16million replacement for Luis Suarez two years ago, scored just four times in 28 games, with just one Premier League goal.
Klopp was clear in his decision that Balotelli had no place at Anfield and ordered him to train with the reserves until he joined Nice on a free transfer during the week.
Now, seething Raiola has sensationally shattered his silence on the Balotelli affair and labelled Klopp as “not a good coach.”
Raiola said: “In the end the leaders at Liverpool admitted that Klopp was wrong. I’m not trying to judge him as a coach, although in my view he is not a good coach.
“But he didn’t understand that Balotelli is, regardless of anything else, a person.
“Mario was exemplary and never complained about training alone. To say that it was wrong of Klopp to treat him like that is an understatement. He was a piece of sh** about it.”