PREMIER LEAGUE COUNTDOWN DYCHE HAILS A £10M BARGAIN
No, i t’s not a pla yer, but Burnley’s fantastic’ new training complex
SEAN DYCHE surveys the scene and looks pleased as punch – and well he might.
His joy is nothing to do with his Burnley underdogs starting a second successive season in the Premier League.
Even though, in the cash-crazy world of English football’s top division, that’s no mean feat.
No. His pride is in the new £10.6million Barnfield training complex which he believes is the biggest statement the Clarets have made since their first foray back into the big time three seasons ago.
The plush new facility is tucked out of sight in the Lancashire countryside – but Dychehe wants the football world to see how his vision has taken shape.
Curved walls, wide corridors, swanky offices, plush changing rooms and hydrotherapypy pool – Dyche is like a proud d dad showing off his new baby.
Culture
“It can only help being here,” he beams.
“Players spend 90 per cent of their time on the training ground so it’s got to be important.
“We think we’ve got a good culture in the club but it’s supported now by a good training ground and fantastic pitches. It’s a fantastic facility.
“It’s a great building but compared to the really big clubs in the Premier League, we’ve got a mini version of all their things.
“We’ve got a hydro pool. It’s a small one, but big enough.
“Underwater treadmill for injured players. Ice plunge, decent size. Hot plunge.
“You go into the real superpower clubs and they will have a full-size swimming pool with a sinking floor so they can adapt to the different levels of injury. All sorts of stuff. But for a club like ours, I think this is more than good enough.
“And it will only get better over the next few years.”
It’s a far cry from the old facility on the same site which was basic, to say the least.
Dyche points out: “We’ve just signed Jack Cork (below).
“When he was here before as a younger player the team got stripped in the changing rooms at Turf Moor.
“Then they got in a car and came down here to train on the old area which was under water from October through to the following March.
“For Corky, who knows what it was like, it’s a radical change.”
But don’t for a minute think Dyche has gone soft. He says: “The architect was brilliant.
“He wanted our input but we tried to keep it simple. It had to be ni nice enough to be a ple pleasure to come into.
“But not so it goes soft like a health club t then it’s ‘no, no hang o on a minute you’ve g got the wrong feel’.
“I didn’t want it to be like ‘where’s my towel and fluffy robe... and all that stuff’. As you can imagine that’s not for me.
“It’s nothing secret. We’re not trying to say we’ve reinvented the wheel. You enjoy the simplicity of it, the finish of it but you can still feel it’s a working environment.”
With Dyche calling the shots the work ethic will always be a priority – especially when you don’t spend big.
This summer Burnley have sold Michael Keane to Everton for £26m and splashed out less t han £ 20m on Swansea midfielder Cork, Stoke duo Jon Walters and Phil Bardsley as well as Leeds talent Charlie Taylor.
That level of recruitment has provoked a few fears, as Dyche reveals: “Occasionally I still get fans saying, ‘Why haven’t you signed him?’ and they’ll pull out some person and you think, ‘Are you serious?’
“They look at you and say, ‘Yeah, with all that TV money’ and you go, ‘Right, and you want us to spend £50m on one player at Burnley?’ You get it – it’s bizarre, but it happens.”
And despite another season where Burnley hope to defy the odds, it’s still an inch by inch process for Dyche.
“I think for us on a team basis, it’s going to be inching forwards, not massive strides. That’s how it should be for a team like us” he says.
Crying
“It’s just about nudging it forward. I can only manage what is given to me. You manage what you’ve got. That can be hard but it gives you clarity.
“You want more, but if you start crying too much you get so wrapped up in it that you affect your own performance, and it starts dipping.
“I know where we’re going.” fans. Two police officers were knocked unconscious and had to be taken to hospital, leaving the match commander to abandon the game at half-time. Police kept behind the 390 visiting fans (above) – some of whom have a reputation for causing trouble – in the crowd of just over 5,000. A Burnley official said: