Concerns about whether Burnley could undergo such a radical change in style over the course of a relegation summer and hit the ground running have been swept aside by a superb start to the Championship season which includes just two defeats so far - Ian Brookes can't believe how well it's gone.
Why did it go wrong for Burnley last year?
The 2021/22 season ended with us losing our place in the Premier League after six consecutive seasons. Although we’d finished in the lowest safety position of 17th in the previous season, we were comfortably safe with 39 points. We had new American owners who were talking a good game and we made some strides in the summer transfer window. Nathan Collins had kicked it all off, coming in from Stoke, but the only other addition ahead of the big kick off was goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey.
Whatever the reason for this lack of adding to the squad, it was obvious that we couldn’t keep playing with the same tactics and same players, season after season, and continue to survive in the Premier League. But that’s what we tried, and it failed spectacularly.
It all started well too. Opening day of the season at home to Brighton and James Tarkowski scored after two minutes. It really was a game we should have won as we hit the post and bar in the first half, and went in at half time 1-0 to the good. But two Brighton goals, five minutes apart, on 73 and 78 minutes condemned us to defeat and a week later, despite playing well, we couldn’t repeat our behind closed doors performances at Liverpool from the previous season and lost 2-0.
Leeds were our next visitors and another game we should have won but a Patrick Bamford goal four minutes from time saw a 1-1 draw. Everton at Goodison next and another defeat from another game in which we should have got something. We went in front but then managed to concede three goals in a six-minute spell and a 1-3 defeat.
Then Sean signed a new contract that would see him remain at Burnley until the end of the 2024/25 season. Then the news came of the capture of Ivorian Maxwell Cornet from Lyon. Something had to give. On what was Sean’s ninth anniversary as Burnley manager, we finally won a game. We blew Brentford away and led 3-0 at half time, with the visitors pulling one back in the second half. Cornet scored the third. This was his fourth goal, and he was making a name for himself as a scorer of spectacular goals.
But that was it, there really was just turgid, stale football with no excitement and no goals after that. Tactics that previously saw is eeking out 1-0 and 0-0 results had been worked out, our players looked sadly bereft of confidence, other teams had moved on in physicality, pace, nouse and gameplans. Lack of fresh blood and new ideas, we resulted to hoofball and for the first time in the decade under Sean, he started to lose the crowd.
The end was sadly predictable. Lack of our own investment and the Saudi takeover of Newcastle showed clearly we could no longer compete in the Moneybags league. Fear and trepidation set in, we all still went home and away and shouted our hearts out for the team, but the joy had gone and the fans were disillusioned. Something had to change.
Having secured only twelve points by the half way stage, and, having lost four successive games from Boxing Day into January, we then won no fewer than thirty points in the final sixteen games. We just left it too late, but try explaining that change in form from the same players.
VAR has caused Premier League football far more problems than it has solved. If your biggest gripe isn’t the way VAR is applied to offside decisions, you’re not watching the same sport as me. Oh, and the six club owners thinking they were entitled to join a European Super League. What a ludicrous group of people who obviously hate football. Our exit from the Premier League was with a whimper, but almost a relief.
Ditching Dyche daft or had time come?
It was Good Friday when Sean was fired. I half expected him to return to Turf Moor on Easter Sunday. We respected him so much for what he’d done for us. It might not have been our best performance, but what proved to be Sean’s final home game in charge against Everton was a typical game under his leadership. The passion in the stands that night helped drive on the players to a 3-2 win from a 1-2 half time position. He started with a win, against Wolves at the start of November 2012 and at least his final home game was a win.
When his predecessor Eddie Howe left, we were sixteenth in the Championship. We’d had an amazing almost out-of-body experience with him. We beat Blackburn for the first time in 34 years. We beat Man C at home, Liverpool at home, Chelsea away, then European football — I loved my trip to play Olympiacos in Athens but what a night at Aberdeen. Thousands of Burnley fans there, able to take in a competitive European game. It might have only been a draw but that, and Athens, will live with me forever. Burnley in Europe.
In January 2020, I experienced something I’d waited fifty years for. Chris Wood and an amazing strike from Jay Rodriguez saw a 2-0 win at Old Trafford. The covid season saw me break my fifty year season record of following Burney to away games, we couldn’t be there, but recorded 1-0 wins at Arsenal and Liverpool. Surreal.
We are a very different football club to the one Sean arrived at in October 2012. He’s given us two Championship promotion seasons and seven seasons in the Premier League. We could not have even dreamed of that. I knew the day would come when he was no longer our manager. It was weird at West Ham, the first game after his sacking, Michael Jackson the U23 manager taking the team.
We’ll get used to it, that’s how football works. It will be strange when we see him on the touchline wearing a different club tie and that’s bound to happen although I can’t imagine he’ll ever enjoy such an amazing decade as he’s done at Burnley where you can drink in the Royal Dyche, a pub named in his honour some seasons ago, next to the ground.
There was a huge divide in the Burnley fan base views on the timing and decision, but for me it was the right thing to do. It was time to make a fresh start, he’d become too loyal to the same group of players and tactics — that had given us success - but it was obvious it no longer worked.
The sale of the club revealed some clashes with the previous chairman and gave credence to the story that Sean’s hands were tied on introducing change. What we thought was smart housekeeping was actually Mike Garlic’s (previous chairman and majority owner) personal agenda to amass a war chest of £80m cash to enable a leveraged buy-out. So whilst I do think Sean had been found out my more progressive managers, our demise was more down to the personal agenda of the previous chairman.
Sean’s was a very special manager for us. Thanks Sean for the last decade. You leave right up there as one of our very best, and for a club of our heritage, that’s saying something.
How's the season gone so far?
The opening game of the season was Huddersfield away, always a good trip just over the hill, and we took 5,000 for the Friday night game. We were unrecognisable, seven debuts and played possession football, a 1-0 win had us all amazed at the transformation. It’s just grown from there.
In the opening home games, we were playing Pep football but had no cutting edge. The crowd was nervous about playing it out from the back. Three successive home draws, unable to keep a lead, and despite just one defeat, it felt very much like a work in progress.
It was the Millwall game when it changed. Millwall were slowing down the game, guilty of some blatant shithousery. They were breaking up our attempts to pass the ball quickly. But keeper Armet Muric passed the ball short through two opposition attackers, cue intakes of breath. He rushed out to play sweeper-keeper and had his name chanted.
Nathan Tella created two chances with one-touch flicked passes. It was coming together.
After dominating the ball, the territory and the chances, Burnley exerted their dominance and scored twice to move up to third in the Championship. After an understandably sticky run while Kompany was teaching his new players exactly what he required of them, it clicked. Sixteen games undefeated says it all, then a crash back down to earth and a 2-5 at Sheffield United who just bullied us, then a glorious — and I mean glorious — 3-0 spanking of Rovers from down the road.
Burnley are a very different team now, and as a bounce back from relegation it really could not have gone much better in terms of results, style and connection of the team, new players, the manager, and the fans. The feel-good factor and excitement of match days is palpable.
Burnley league results so far…
Huddersfield 0-1 Burnley Maatsen 18
Burnley 1-1 Luton Brownhill 50 — Potts 5
Watford 1-0 Burnley Cleverley 45
Burnley 1-1 Hull Rodriguez 34 — Tufan 45
Burnley 3-3 Blackpool Brownhill 3, Tella 11, 33 — Corbeanu 21, Lavery 74, Yates 76
Wigan 1-5 Burnley Keane pen 43 — Rodriguez 17, Brownhill 27, 86, Tella 51, Bastien 86
Burnley 2-0 Millwall Vitinho 62, Rodriguez 72
West Brom 1-1 Burnley Thomas-Asante 90 — Rodriguez pen 30
Preston 1-1 Burnley Storey 15 — Harwood-Bellis 10
Burnley 2-1 Bristol City Benson 4, Rodriguez 57 — Wells 27
Cardiff 1-1 Burnley Robinson 90 — Tella 48
Burnley 1-1 Stoke Roberts 54 — Clarke 87
Coventry 0-1 Burnley Tella 39
Burnley 4-0 Swansea Vitinho 15, Rodriguez 29, 57, Zaroury 45
Birmingham 1-1 Burnley Hogan 80 — Gudmundsson 74
Sunderland 2-4 Burnley Diallo 16, Neill 20 — Tella 50, Benson 61, Zaroury 69, Brownhill 87
Burnley 1-0 Norwich Rodriguez pen 82
Burnley 2-1 Reading Benson 66, Zaroury 90 - — Ince 56
Burnley 3-2 Rotherham Rodriguez 35, Benson 90, Dervisoglu 90 — Wiles 3, Ogbene 64
Sheff Utd 5-2 Burnley Ndiaye 30, McBurnie 48, 74, Robinson 64, Ahmedhodzic 69 — Robinson og 17, Benson 45
Burnley 3-0 Blackburn Barnes 55, 81, Zaroury 74
My big thing with Burnley this season was whether you could transform a team's style and ethos quite that dramatically quite that quickly and it work, but that doesn't look to be a problem so far to say the least. Assessment of Kompany's impact?
Change was a little overdue here. Dyche had lost his way, we’d avoided relegation the season before as there were three worse teams than us, and his tenure became a downhearted wash-rinse-repeat tale about Little Old Burnley and the ageing squad. Our consistency became inertia became staleness without anyone noticing before it was too late. When the dependables become automatic selections but undependable, you’re left clutching at straws.
We couldn’t quite believe we’d been able to attract Kompany, one of the all-time Premier League greats. His personality, attitude and charisma brought a shot of confidence when we were all a bit moribund. I will never criticise Dyche for failing to adapt because what he did largely and it worked very well, but we perennially lived in the present. Adversity of relegation offered a shot at a new future and a refresh, and we’ve got one in spades.
The ins and outs were a conveyor belt, the exits of Pope, Mee, Tarky and McNeil were painful, and the incomings — well, most we’d never heard of. But boy can Kompany pick a player, improve them, and gel a team. The scale of the overhaul is astonishing. Thirteen first-team players left, fifteen new signings arrived with three from Manchester City and a cluster from the Belgian League.
That is no surprise given the kudos and aura of Kompany and he has brought some of the division’s best young talent with him. The oldest of Burnley’s fifteen signings is 26; nine are aged 22 or under. We have a blend of old and new, English, and European, and in Vitinho, our first ever Brazilian at Turf Moor.
More emphatic even than the change of personnel is the extraordinary switch in style. The perception of Burnley became a parody of long ball under Dyche, which was unfair, we just played to our strengths of ‘maximum effort is the minimum requirement’. Burnley ranked last in the Premier League last season for possession, we rank first in the Championship in 2022-23 so far. Kompany’s impact has been immediate and, in all honesty, astonishing.
Procession to promotion from here, any problems on the horizon?
We were the Premier League’s joint second lowest scorers in the relegation season. Kompany has us as the division’s top scorers with goals spread across the team. We play pacey possession football based on short passing, look to control the game in the opposition’s half and are relentless going forward. It is not implicitly critical of what worked before to say that this is different and better football.
Unfortunately, reality is a little more stark. We have a strong squad but are dependent on several loans that will hopefully not see recalls in January, or bids come in for some of the new signings that have made an immediate impact. Despite the parachute payments, we don’t have a lot of cash for reinforcements - we spent £32m this summer paying off half of the new American owners, ALK Capital, loan to MSD Holdings. The loan is part of an agreement of the club’s takeover by ALK in 2020 that became due for payment due to a cause triggered by relegation.
The repayment clearly dented Kompany’s budget but he joined citing his awareness of the financial status of the club and has unearthed some gems for £4m. We have momentum, purpose and passion, the travelling support is back to 5000 and the bond between team and fans is back to its best. If all of this continues, and the squad has one or two enhancements, we should stay the course. I think our consistency will see us to promotion as our energy, pace and relentless attacking just wears teams down. Optimistic but ask me with five games to go! We have given up 15 points from winning positions. Just imagine what the table could have looked like.
Ins >>> Benson Manuel Hedilazio, 25, RW, Antwerp, £4m >>> Anass Zaroury, 21, LW, Charleroi, £4m >>> Darko Churlinov, 22, LW, Stuttgart, £3.5m >>> Posh Scott Twine, 22, AM, MK Dons, £2.9m >>> Josh Cullen, 26, CM, Anderlecht, £2.7m >>> Arijanet Muric, 23, GK, Man City, £2.3m >>> Luke McNally, 22, CB, Oxford, £1.6m >>> Vitinho, 23, RB, Brugge, £1m >>> Samuel Bastien, 25, CM, Standard Liege, £720k >>> Denis Franchi, 19, GK, Paris SG, Undisclosed >>> CJ Egan-Riley, 19, CB, Man City, Free >>> Taylor Harwood-Bellis, 20, CB, Man City, Loan >>> Ian Maatsen, 20, LB, Chelsea, Loan >>> Jordan Beyer, 22, CB, Monchengladbach, Loan >>> Halil Dervisoglu, 22, CF, Brentford, Loan >>> Nathan Tella, 23, RW, Southampton, Loan
Outs >>> Nathan Collins, 21, CB, Wolves, £24.3m >>> Maxwell Cornet, 23, RW, West Ham, £20m >>> Dwight McNeil, 22, LW, Everton, £17m >>> Nick Pope, 30, GK, Newcastle, £10m >>> James Tarkowski, 29, CB, Everton, Free >>> Ben Mee, 32, CB, Brentford, Free >>> Wayne Hennessey, 35, GK, Forest, Free >>> Wout Weghorst, 29, CF, Besiktas, Loan >>> Aaron Lennon, 35, RW, Retired >>> Dale Stephens, 33, CM, Released >>> Erik Pieters, 33, LB, West Brom, Free >>> Phil Bardsley, 37, CB, Released >>> Matej Vydra, 30, CF, Released
Any January whispers? I saw Gyokeres linked but Cov want a lot of money…
There are rumours that we’re looking to make some of the loans permanent signings which makes sense and would enable us to kick-on and build a more stable squad. Our top signing in the summer, Scott Twine, has only played twenty minutes due to injury so hopefully will come back after the World Cup break and be possessed to deliver in the second of the season.
Gyokeres from Coventry has been linked, in the summer we were after Obafemi from Swansea, so a striker is obviously a priority. Jay Rodriguez has been reborn under Kompany but he’s 30+ now and whilst his intelligence makes him a key player, we need a 20+ goals striker to cement the opportunity.
Burnley are a team reborn after swapping Dycheball for a Belgian revolution under Kompany. Who knows if this will work out: Kompany as a manager, Burnley under American owners, one-touch football at Turf Moor. We were a club left with two choices: try and recapture what had been sadly lost or to reinvent themselves. If nothing else, this is the far more fascinating option.
As we applaud new heroes with different attributes — Tella and his dribbling, Zaroury with wing play, Harwood-Bellis for his Kompanyesque calmness and decisiveness in defence, Muric, and his short passing — you become convinced. Uncertainty can be scary. It can also be life-affirming.
The fabric of Turf Moor must never be shifted. The glorious view of a Lancashire mill town over the back of the stands, diagonal rows of identical terraced houses, sunshine glancing off church steeples, old cotton mills and the cricket ground next door is my lifetime panorama. A look back over my shoulder to my Saturday afternoon/Tuesday evening heritage.
At the final whistle as we beat Rovers in our last game before the World Cup break it was clear, a touch chilly and the sun was setting on a late autumn day. It was a great view as we pressed pause on the season. It might be the best sporting view in the country come May next year.
Links >>> Burnley Official Website >>> No Nay Never — Podcast >>> Lancashire Telegraph — Local Press >>> Up The Clarets — Message Board
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