Burnley manager Sean Dyche has responded to questions about his future at the club as reports have emerged claiming that he could leave Turf Moor.
Last night, the Daily Mail reported that the 48-year-old is considering his future with the Clarets amid rumours that his relationship with chairman Mike Garlick is ‘fractured beyond repair’ following his public grievances over the club’s failure to hand contract extensions to several first team players who will leave the club upon expiry of their deals next week.
When asked directly by Lancashire Live if the contract situation led him to question his Turf Moor future, Dyche replied: “I just look at the facts and try and share a view on that. Emotion sometimes creeps into that but not very often or I try and park it quickly.
“I think the business opportunities that are available, and when they become available, we have got to get on top of them. I just want to give a factual view of the situation. That is all I have tried to do on this. It is a situation that I think could have been changed.”
Dyche has enjoyed tremendous stability at Burnley, where he has now been manager for more than seven-and-a-half years, eclipsed only slightly by Bournemouth’s Eddie Howe as the longest-serving boss in his current role in the Premier League.
Having mainly been a mid-table Championship club (save for one top-flight season in 2009/10) prior to his appointment in October 2012, the Kettering native has either won promotion to the Premier League or managed in it in every full season that he has had as Clarets manager. It’s a record that he is on course to maintain, with the Lancashire side a comfortable 12th in the table. [via TransferMarkt]
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Even though Burnley have been a top-flight club for four successive seasons and five of the last six, their squad still has the third-lowest market value in the Premier League at just £142.88m (as per TransferMarkt), a testament to the outstanding job that Dyche has performed at Turf Moor.
In recent years, we have seen clubs such as Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, Sunderland, Stoke and Swansea drop out of the Premier League after firmly establishing themselves in the division and subsequently struggle to even get close to regaining top-flight status.
The danger is that the same could happen to Burnley if they tumble out of the top tier and Dyche’s outstanding work at the club should not be taken for granted.
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He said himself that his outburst last week over the contract situation was his first public criticism of the board during his time in charge and perhaps the Turf Moor hierarchy ought not to antagonise him too much. If he were to walk away, he would leave a very hard act for his successor to follow, with the 48-year-old succeeding in establishing Burnley as a sensible, efficient top-flight club.
Burnley fans, are you concerned that Dyche might quit if his relationship with the board is soured? Comment below with your views!
