CLARETS FACE UPHILL BATTLE IN THE LAND OF BILLIONAIRES

IT’S the league table that illustrates the constant struggle for Burnley to simply exist amongst English football’s elite.

It’s why chairman Mike Garlick is in advanced talks about a takeover with two interested parties and it’s why manager Sean Dyche is unable to compete in an inflationary transfer market.

Burnley being rock-bottom of the latest Premier League owners’ rich list is a graphic confirmation of the upstairs-downstairs world they inhabit. That could be about to change if either Egyptian businessman Mohamed El Kashashy – worth £9.65billion – or American group ALK Capital LLC, a multimillion valued investment company, buy the Clarets.

The £1m capture of Brighton midfielder Dale Stephens (right) was the sum total of Dyche’s spending in the last window.

Garlick, who is the major Burnley shareholder, is reported to be worth £62m – a far cry from Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour’s £15.19b.

In fact, the Premier League has 17 billionaires in charge of clubs leaving millionaires

Andrea Radrizzani (Leeds

United) £450m, Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulazide Al Saud (Sheffield United) £198m and

Garlick as also-rans. The top ten on the list is: Sheikh Mansour £15.19bn, Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) £9.65bn, Stan Kroenke (Arsenal) £6.31bn, Shahid Khan (Fulham) £5.93bn, Nassef Sawiris (Aston Villa) £5.39b, Guo Guangchang (Wolves) £4.41bn, Joe Lewis (Spurs) £3.98bn, the Glazers (Man Utd) £3.8bn, Joshua Harris (Crystal Palace) £3.42b; Gao Jisheng (Southampton) £3.1bn.