FLYING BATES meets Burnley manager Sean Dyche SQUAD
Mega-wealthy players like Sanchez will soon be arriving by chopper to train, predicts Clarets chief
Managing one of the super-power clubs now is like managing 25 mini companies because players have agents, stylists, media advisers.
“I recently heard about a player having a chat with an agent about what cap he should wear getting on the team bus because one would send out a different message to the other!”
Dyche – with a new four-and-a-half year Clarets contract – was chatting after a guided tour of Burnley’s new £10.6million Barnfield training centre amid spectacular Lancashire scenery. There is plenty of room for a helipad – but, for now, Burnley are simply content to be heading in the right direction under Dyche’s enthusiastic leadership in an ever- changing landscape.
“Without a doubt, the face of football has changed – the size, the glamour, the outside view of it,” he added.
“It has gone from a working man’s game to a corporate one with superstar fans turning up at grounds. It’s become a global spectacle.”
But, as crazy money swirls around the upper echelons, Dyche is ultimately concerned about the mental effect on players.
Welfare
“After 140 years of football, you ask what innovations are left?
“I personally think it will be in player welfare, mental care.
“That will be a big one for the future because I think the demands are getting higher, whether we like it or not. The days of saying, ‘Man up and get on with it’ are gone.
“But I don’t like the notion that players have to perform well because they earn huge wages.
“When you are at a certain level of wealth – which I’m not – the money is absolutely obsolete.
“Nowadays, it’s about real welfare and giving players absolutely everything they need to perform.”