The Clarets boss Sean Dyche marks eight years in charge at Turf Moor next week during which time he has overseen two promotions to the Premier League – establishing Burnley as a top-flight club in the process – secured a first European campaign in 51 years while he also had a major influence on the club’s training base on the outskirts of the town. Dyche is by no means ready to sit back and reflect on a job well done just yet but a chance look out across those pitches at Barnfield struck a chord.
Sean Dyche said “Funny enough, I was just sat on the balcony last week, beautiful night, really mild and calm, I was on the phone and I did look out across the pitches and we had some light rigs on the pitches so the grass grows all winter, When I started we could hardly afford a lightbulb, now we’ve got light rigs on our training pitches, so it’s a fair shift in what’s happened. So things like that, the quality of the pitches, the quality of the training ground, securing the club financially, all these good things, but you don’t just stop and go ‘that’s all right then’, you just keep going and going and going. Somewhere down the line in a number of years, I’ll have a glass of wine and reminisce on the good times. I think probably the balance of the acceptance of the fans of Burnley and what the club is has helped me be here so long, The reason why I say that is one season we finish seventh and the next season is a tough one, they could have been after me and the team, but I don’t think they were. There’s a resilience to their thinking. We’ve tried to be honest about the truth of the club, but not in a negative way because this is an amazing story the way the club’s grown. Without that balance of the people’s view, it’s very difficult. We know the demands can come on top very, very quickly.”
