David Sneyd

Exclusive step into the building all that matters is working your hardest.

“I remember that last game of the season when we’d already been relegated. It was Aston Villa and in the team meeting there was nothing about tactics or anything like that.

“It was, ‘Listen lads, everyone wants to play in the Premier League, everyone is going to want to leave and everyone’s agent is going to be making calls.’

“But he told us he couldn’t get rid of us all, he admitted one or two would go for the right price, but that if we stuck with him, with the club and got around the fact that we might have one season back in the Championship, we’d be promoted if that core group stayed together.

“We all sort of went off that summer trusting what he told us and next season we were able to get back with him.”

Burnley have stayed there since, and Dyche is the longest serving manager in the Premier League.

When he sees out the remainder of this campaign, it will bring his tenure at Turf Moor to eight full seasons – six of which have been in the top flight.

Barring a dramatic collapse, next year will be Burnley’s sixth consecutive among the elite of English football.

The landscape has changed in the boardroom, with US consortium ALK Capital completing a £170million takeover in February, but Ward feels that doesn’t necessarily mean Dyche could follow suit.

“He’s come from the school of Brian Clough at Forest. He’s the boss. People can say it’s old-school but he’s proven it can get results,” added Ward.

“If you look at some of the managers who have been successful in the Premier League over many years and always seem to come back in, the likes of Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis, they have proven track records.

“He’s a bit like that in terms of the mentality side of it but he also knows football has moved on and he balances that really well. That’s a key thing, work hard regardless of everything else.

“It’s football in its purest form for him.”