How to destroy a football club. Or not?
For years Burnley were the model of a sustainable, sensibly-run successful small town football club. They have since become a case-study in the madness of modern football.
Six years ago Burnley achieved the seemingly impossible. The smallest club in the Premier League, from a town with a population of around 80,000, The Clarets qualified for the Europa League with a seventh place finish.
Manager Sean Dyche had been working on what was close to a shoe-string budget. The club’s chairman Mike Garlick, was a Burnley fan who was rich enough to own the club but not rich enough to bankroll big spending in the transfer market. But the team’s success was a reminder that a well-organised unit, with a consistent starting line-up of mostly British players playing well organized football, could still compete at the highest level.
Fast forward six years and Burnley are the most chaotic club in the Championship. No-one seems to know exactly how much in debt the club is or exactly how it is being kept afloat by loans nor what the ultimate goal is of the American ownership group who purchased the Clarets via a Glazer-style leveraged buy-out in December 2020, loading millions in debt on to the club.
For all but a handful of dedicated Burnley supporting accountants who try to keep track of the situation, the finances of the club are simply too complicated to comprehend and the owners make no effort to enlighten or reassure the supporters. Among fans there is a mixture of blind-faith, suspicion and increasingly hostility towards chairman Alan Pace and the ALK Capital group.
Last season the club returned to the Premier League after running away with the Championship under the charge of former Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany. The Belgian had overseen the break-up of Dyche’s squad and replaced them with a collection of bright, young talents from his homeland and other parts of Europe. There was optimism that if this promising young team could be reinforced with some proven Premier League quality and experience, they could not only survive in the top flight but finish in the kind of mid-table position they were accustomed to under Dyche.
But instead of building on that team, Kompany effectively broke it up, sidelining many of the players who had won promotion. He went on a spending spree, blowing well north of a 100 million on another collection of promising, young European players. And to cut to the chase - they totally bombed, incapable of competing, tactically naïve, lacking spirit as well as organization, they were relegated without putting up much of a fight.
That’s when things started to get really weird and very modern football.
Reports and rumours began to circulate that Kompany, far from being glad to have the continued support of the club’s owners despite such a disastrous season, wanted out. Incredibly Bayern Munich offered him that route out.
Burnley eventually appointed former Fulham and Bournemouth manager Scott Parker as his replacement. In the opening two games, with the Premier League squad mostly intact, Burnley thumped Luton 4-1 on the road and then hammered Cardiff City 5-0.
Then came the exodus. Young French winger Wilson Odabert had been sold before the Cardiff game to Spurs for an eye-watering fee of over 30 million and Norway midfielder Sander Berge soon followed him to the capital joining Fulham for 20-25 million. After Irish centre-half Dara O’Shea was left out of the trip to Sunderland, where a depleted team lost 1-0, he was promptly sold to Ipswich Town for around 12 million.
Young defender Ameen Al-Dakhil was sold to Stuttgart, Moroccan/Belgian winger Anass Zaroury went to Lens and it felt like every hour or so another Burnley player was reported to be set to depart.
Reports suggested, Zeke Amdouni, Josh Brownhill, Lyle Foster and Luca Koleosho could leave before the Friday’ deadline. The valuations placed on some of these players though are so much higher than any realistic expectation. Foster for example, scored five goals in 24 appearances last season and missed a chunk of the campaign due to mental health issues. As it transpired, Ipswich weren’t ready to commit 25 million to sign him, while Brownhill and Koleosho stayed put. Only Amdouni left for Benfica.
The final 48 hours of the window saw Jeremy Sarmiento and Jaidon Anthony (a player well-know to Parker from his time at Bournemouth) sign on loan deals, while Stoke’s Josh Laurent made a permanent move. Friday had Burnley twitter in a tizzy tracking helicopters - hopefully with Millwall’s Zian Flemming a passenger - which he was, just in time to sign at 10:59pm.
As the dust literally settled, and the collective blood pressure of a fraught fan base subsided, Burnley had managed to bring 15 players in and shift 21 players out while significantly reducing the wage bill.
Which was necessary, and in hindsight looks like a decent transfer window.
Apart from one thing - the timing and the chaos of it all.
There are plenty of mentions in the second season of Mission to Burnley that the board, Pace, and everyone else required to know understood the assignment, with Alan Pace on the phone, after getting Scott Parker in as the new manager in July saying, “I’ve got 200 million on the pitch that I’m in trouble for.”
Maybe this is modern football and Burnley are still getting their feet wet - both as fans and owners. There’s no doubt that two relegations, one promotion, and three managers over two-and-a-half campaigns would test the most seasoned of boards, never mind a bunch of Venture Capitalists with a chairman who doesn’t know who Eric Dier is but has no doubt Burnley will play in the Champions League.
Perhaps he misspoke and meant the Championship.
But, is it a sustainable model? Is it a gamble?
And at what point does their luck run out or they get cold feet and cash in their chips? And then what happens?
There are so many unanswered questions and no-one at the club seems willing to answer them. Just how big are Burnley’s debts? How much are their many and complex, overseas loans and what would happen if they don’t go straight back for another season in the Premier League and access to all that broadcasting cash?
Because Burnley ain’t playing Champions League, that’s for sure.
Goal & Goalkeeper of the Day
Opposition goalkeepers comes up for a corner in injury time, climbs above everyone to head it straight into the keeper’s arms…
Sunday Morning WTAF of the Day
In every other parallel universe this goes out for a throw-in. Also, the No. 8 is probably complaining he took it off his toe:
Manager of the Day
No other manager integrates themselves into the local culture quite like former Manchester United assistant manager, Steve Mclaren. Or Schteeve Mclaren as he became known while managing Twente in Holland for developing an English Dutch accent. Here he is during his first training session with the Jamaica national team:
Stat(s) of the Day
No wonder Todd Boehly wants out of Chelsea if these record Premier League spends are anything to go by:
Vincent Kompany of the Day - Almost
One minute you’re assistant coach of League One Stockport County, the next you’re being poached to join Carlo Ancelotti’s backroom staff at Real Madrid.
You move your family to Spain, start learning Spanish, look for schools for your kids, then your work permit gets denied because of Brexit regulations.
You’ve got to feel for Andy Mangan. (Times)
Non-Transfer of the Day
During his medical for Fulham, Lyon’s Ernest Nuamah burst out into tears - not at the prospect of joining the Premier League or joining the Cottagers, but because he didn’t want to leave Lyon and believed he was being forced out.
Before the last part of the medical he did a runner. With nobody able to find him, including his agent, the move fell through, with prospective Everton buyer and current Lyon owner, John Textor, formally apologising to Fulham.
Quote of the Day
“They asked me to manage the Rest of the World team. I couldn't say no quick enough. Kids blowing horns, women screaming, hell on Earth. It's like a who's who of cretins. Charging folk £50 to watch John Bishop and Jack Whitehall run around like a couple of gimps on acid, it's immoral. Don't get me started on Jonathan Wilkes. Famous, for what? Wiping Robbie Williams arse? I amazed that fat idiot Corden isn't involved. I don't care if it's for Charity. They should be grateful they can't get ITV in Uganda."
-Roy Keane, on being asked to coach the Rest of the World team for SoccerAid.
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