WHAT IS DYCHE’S SECRET?
‘Getting booed off was the best thing that could have happened to me’
THERE is a new taboo around Burnley Football Club. Under no circumstances mention the fact that they are quietly building themselves into an established Premier League club.
Sean Dyche is not having it. ‘Established is a dangerous word for me,’ he says. ‘It could imply a modicum of complacency.’
He has just been citing the examples of West Bromwich Albion and Stoke, neither of whom would have been among most pundits’ relegation candidates at the start of the season. Southampton finished eighth last year and qualified for the Europa League.
That aside, Dyche knows they have something to celebrate at Turf Moor today. Next season, for the first time since 1966- 67, Burnley are in Europe. Founder members of the Football League in 1888, they almost dropped out of it and off the map in 1987. Now seventh best in t he Premier League, by default they will become one of the richest clubs in world football. ‘People here will tell you those stories of 30 years ago,’ says Dyche. ‘That bloodline has carried the story through. And that’s quite helpful in these situations. Because you go: “Hang on a minute! Look around you. Let’s remind ourselves of where we’re from”.’
There is no hiding from the fact that Burnley are one of the best. Or, by The Mail on Sunday’s analysis, the best when you allow for financial resources. Allowing for respective salaries and working out how many pounds each club spent per point, Burnley are top of our alternative Premier League, nudging out Huddersfield. As such, Dyche is our manager of the year, though he has no time to dwell on that.
There are anecdotes about the gigs Stuart Pearce used to take him to as a player at Nottingham Forest. ‘ He thought we’d all never heard music until he told us about it!’ Primarily there is the need to reboot over the summer, which he will do by doing ‘the normal stuff you can’t do: seeing the kids, driving them to school; holidays, weekends and barbecues; the things you write off’.
In professional football’s original heartland, some way removed from the Disneyfied version of the global game, Burnley and Dyche are building something extraordinary. The seventh best club in the country were selected for just seven live TV appearances this season, the lowest of any club.
Dyche does not bridle. ‘ I’m not fussed by any of that,’ he says. ‘We have our internal journey which is us as a club and the team and the board and myself. Football has changed. It’s about brand.’
Yet it only thrives off genuine competition. ‘There’s talk of this idea that the top six should get more money,’ he says. ‘It will be interesting how the fans view that. I can only imagine fans want to see a competition. One of the marvels of English football is that at least you are talking about a top six, seven, with the odd anomaly.
‘But if you want that to continue as a fan it would probably strongly suggest that you don’t really want them to have increased finance. On top of the fact that most of the clubs are already owned by billionaires.’
Keeping within touching distance of the billionaires requires considerable effort. And innovation. Maybe because of the playing career at Chesterfield, Bristol City, Luton, Watford and Northampton or the gravelly voice which suggests an old school approach or just because of the unfashionable nature of Burnley itself, people do not naturally look for the cutting edge at Turf Moor.
But t oday Dyche t akes on his predecessor in the Burnley job, Eddie Howe. With the departure of Arsene Wenger, they will become the longestserving Premier League managers. Their respective successes are not coincidental.
Dyche was obsessing with pressing more than five years ago. He was an early adopter of the idea that the key to modern football would be in the transition, how quickly you move from recovering possession to attacking opponents, as exemplified by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool against Manchester City and Roma.
One writer recently recalled having these conversations with him long ago. Dyche almost blushes at the reminder. ‘It’s not just me, by the way. It’s really important you say there are some good thoughts out there by a lot of managers. I shared some thoughts with that writer about the way I thought the game was going. Maybe by chance, but it has come true. But it doesn’t really have any power. But when one of the powerful coaches comes out and says that, it’s like a revolution. That’s what he was alluding to, I think.’
The next big development? It will not be on the pitch, according to Dyche. It is player welfare, or rather than mental and psychological development of footballers, the ability both to challenge and comfort them. It stems both from his research but also from experience. He joined Bristol City at the age of 26, pretty
‘THE WORST PERIOD OF MY CAREER STOOD ME IN GOOD STEAD’