Burnley’s Premier League status was officially confirmed on Sunday following Hull’s defeat at Crystal Palace, which can now lead to Sean Dyche’s plans for summer recruitment as the Clarets bid to become an established topflight club.
Points haven’t come freely away from Turf Moor but 10 home wins has kept Burnley in the Premier League, which will of course boost the coffers available to Dyche, not that he’ll go on a spending spree anytime soon.
The transfer record was broken when bringing Steven Defour and then Jeff Hendrick to Burnley last summer, Robbie Brady’s signing from Norwich in January saw this broken again.
But the boss, even if he once again ended up asking for club record backing when the transfer window opens, doesn’t have any plans on a lavish spending spree this summer – it’s all about investing in players and managing these finances wisely.
He was quoted by Sky Sports: ‘We’ve never been market leaders financially. We have money but it has to be managed wisely. If I was at another club and I didn’t have that challenge, I’d manage whatever I had. The key thing for me is being pragmatic about it and working with the club and I think that’s a better way of managing personally, but it is tough.’
Beaten 2-1 at Dean Court by Russian backed Bournemouth on Saturday, Burnley don’t have a benefactor like Maxim Demin, who has backed the Cherries since 2011, now themselves considered an established topflight outfit.
Pretty much all Premier League clubs, and half of those in the Championship too, are backed by people who have ‘hundreds and hundreds of millions’ that allow vast amounts of money to be spent.
However, Dyche doesn’t feel Burnley would believe in such an approach even if it was possible.
Dyche added: ‘When you’re talking about the Premier League and half the Championship, the reality is you’ve got people who own the clubs who have hundreds and hundreds of millions. We haven’t. This club itself [Bournemouth] have got a backer who has supported them hugely, a massive, massive amount of money that they’ve generated from his resource. We just haven’t got that. Even if we did have, I’m not sure the club believe in that.’
Burnley have a very good setup with the infrastructure growing all the time – it’s a way that works and long may this continue, without the need to spend obscene amounts of money to achieve a realistic Clarets goal.
Keep the Clarets as a real club. Never mind the glory of buying success, I am proud to have been a BFC supporter for some 70 years through thick and thin. SD is my sort of manager and I am hoping we can make him a real honorary Burnlyite.
Don’t think we need much more, but depends where our target level will be. No surprise that we struggled towards the end of the season when Dean Marney was missing, but who will replace him?
My humble opinion is we need a quality replacement for Marney and Keane, if he goes. Also a quality striker who has got the killer touch that we have lacked.