The Burnley Way.
On the face of it, two recent stellar performers for Burnley Football
Club departing Turf Moor just before the new English Premier League campaign
even kicks off, might suggest to the neutral observer, Sean Dyche’s Clarets are
accepting relegation as inevitable.
England international Michael
Keane has already departed Burnley for the warm embrace of Everton’s Goodison
Park and Andre Gray has just departed East Lancashire for Watford’s Vicarage Road.
The two outgoing transfers yield the
Clarets a handsome net profit of upwards of thirty million pounds. Keane
arrived at Burnley three years ago, still a wet behind the ears wannabe from
Sir Alex Ferguson’s school of hard knocks. Sean Dyche polished, cultivated and developed
the young Keane into a fully-fledged high class, much coveted central defender.
Gray was snaffled by Dyche two
seasons ago from then fellow Championship side Brentford, following Gray’s
rapid rise through the non-league ranks. Gray arrived at Burnley with a reputation
as a West Midland’s bad boy, resplendent with facial street cred knife scar and
an undisputed eye for goal. Both Keane and Gray were an integral part in
Burnley’s successful chase and capture of the Holy Grail which brought Burnley
back into the top flight of English football.
Sean Dyche managed to retain
Burnley’s place in the English Premier League with a relatively comfortable
finishing place of sixteenth. To sell two of his brightest protegees is almost
unthinkable for the casual football thinker but as Sean Dyche himself recently
alluded to; this is “The Burnley Way”.
No Burnley player is bigger than
the team, Dyche’s team plays under the ethos of the minimum requirement is
maximum effort. Burnley Football Club was long prepared for the inevitable
Keane departure. James Tarkowski another bargain price capture from Brentford,
has waited patiently in the wings and is perhaps another future England
international, spotted and developed under the watchful auspices of the ginger
hard man.
Gray appeared to become
intoxicated with a high media presence following his much publicized
relationship with a well-known female pop singer, a relationship which Dyche seemingly
did not wholly approve of. Gray’s departure has not been met with the customary
genuine best wishes and good luck and fond memories. It seems Burnley have decided
to take the Watford lucre and run. Dyche’s Burnley and a pair of media darlings
do not easily walk hand in hand.
The multi-million pound question
now is whether or not Dyche’s team are likely to survive the loss of Gray and
Keane and survive for a third season in the English Premier League? In much the
same way that Tarkowski was bought to replace Keane, Stoke City’s Jonathan
Walters was brought in to supplant Gray.
It really is the Burnley way and I reckon
beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Burnley gaffer Sean Dyche and his recruitment
team already have further recruits identified and on the cusp of arriving on
the doorstep of entrance to the famous old founder member of the Football
League. It is The Burnley Way you know? (TEC)
Source: DSG
