Michael Kightly celebrates after scoring Burnley's second goal against Wigan. Photograph: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images
Barely 48 hours remained before the start of the season when the promotion picture in the Championship seemed to have become clear. Queens Park Rangers bought Burnley's top scorer, Charlie Austin, and while Harry Redknapp's side were already favourites to win the division, their status as the division's outstanding team appeared to be rubber-stamped by the arrival of a prolific goalscorer.
This, it seemed, was all about QPR. Burnley had been one of the Premier League's one-season wonders: scrutinised, patronised and then cast aside after their relegation in 2010, and few outside East Lancashire considered the implications of the £4m forward's sale for them. Those who did wondered if another demotion was possible: after all, Austin scored 25 of Burnley's 62 league goals last season. Martin Paterson and Chris McCann, who chipped in with a further dozen between them, had already gone. It was just as well, some supporters reflected gloomily, that an otherwise undersized squad now featured four goalkeepers because they were not signing a striker.
"Recognised goalscorers are in short supply," said their manager, Sean Dyche, in August. So he promoted unrecognised goalscorers. The answer did not lie in the transfer market but on the Burnley bench. One man's exit was an opportunity for two more. "It's a great opening," Dyche said then. "The immediacy is to affect it from in-house. Players should be chomping at the bit."
Two were. Sam Vokes scored four goals in 36 league games last season. Danny Ings got three in 32. This season each has reached the 20-goal barrier for the first time in his career. They have dovetailed beautifully; Vokes has been the target man, Ings the predator. The latter was named the Championship's player of the year. Dyche should scoop the managerial award.
His fortunes, like Burnley's, have been transformed. Sacked by Watford in 2012, when new owners preferred to appoint the more glamorous Gianfranco Zola, Dyche did not receive a rapturous reception in his early months at Turf Moor. There were gripes among fans accustomed to attacking – and sometimes defensively suspect – football under Eddie Howe, Owen Coyle and Stan Ternent that the newcomer was too focused on keeping clean sheets.
Not any more. The gravel-voiced Dyche is now nicknamed the "Ginger Mourinho". He has constructed the division's tightest defence but the raiding right-back Kieran Trippier also belongs among the division's most creative players. It is part of a wider blueprint that is not remotely revolutionary, but instead reflects old-fashioned values.
Dyche's side play a traditional 4-4-2 and his work ethic is reflected in a high-energy pressing game. A straightforward approach is mirrored by his players' wholehearted efforts. Their team spirit is apparent in a refusal to be beaten and Burnley lost only three times before the end of March. On the pitch, it may be a pragmatic promotion. Financially, it is a miraculous one.
Dyche's transfer outgoings amount to just £450,000 and only three regulars - the goalkeeper Tom Heaton, the winger Scott Arfield and the borrowed Michael Kightly – are his signings. As the low-profile, low-spending antithesis to QPR, they have proved promotion can be accomplished on a budget. The scale of the achievement is reflected in the figures. Burnley's turnover for the 2012-13 financial year was £15.3m. Participation in the Premier League is thought to be worth £120m.
It may afford Dyche a belated chance to buy but Burnley were careful not to bankrupt themselves in their last season in the top flight. With nine players out of contract, he could reshape his squad but loyalty suggests some will be retained.
Burnley will begin next season without Vokes, who is sidelined by a cruciate knee injury, and, Ings and Trippier aside, their ranks may not contain too many players who are expected to prosper in the Premier League.
Middlesbrough's Jonathan Woodgate said he believed a joint XI from the two teams would feature more from mid-table Boro than Burnley's promotion winners. It was part criticism, part compliment, a sign of the power of Burnley's teamwork and of their continuing capacity to confound expectations.
Predictions of a swift return to the Championship will abound, and not just from those who expected them to go down to League One this year, but there is a precedent for an unglamorous British manager to focus on defensive solidity and keep up a side widely deemed to be relegation fodder. Instead of being the "Ginger Mourinho", Dyche's next task is to prove himself the goateed Tony Pulis.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Burnley's old-fashioned values earn rich reward with promotion
Michael Kightly celebrates after scoring Burnley's second goal against Wigan. Photograph: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images
Barely 48 hours remained before the start of the season when the promotion picture in the Championship seemed to have become clear. Queens Park Rangers bought Burnley's top scorer, Charlie Austin, and while Harry Redknapp's side were already favourites to win the division, their status as the division's outstanding team appeared to be rubber-stamped by the arrival of a prolific goalscorer.
This, it seemed, was all about QPR. Burnley had been one of the Premier League's one-season wonders: scrutinised, patronised and then cast aside after their relegation in 2010, and few outside East Lancashire considered the implications of the £4m forward's sale for them. Those who did wondered if another demotion was possible: after all, Austin scored 25 of Burnley's 62 league goals last season. Martin Paterson and Chris McCann, who chipped in with a further dozen between them, had already gone. It was just as well, some supporters reflected gloomily, that an otherwise undersized squad now featured four goalkeepers because they were not signing a striker.
"Recognised goalscorers are in short supply," said their manager, Sean Dyche, in August. So he promoted unrecognised goalscorers. The answer did not lie in the transfer market but on the Burnley bench. One man's exit was an opportunity for two more. "It's a great opening," Dyche said then. "The immediacy is to affect it from in-house. Players should be chomping at the bit."
Two were. Sam Vokes scored four goals in 36 league games last season. Danny Ings got three in 32. This season each has reached the 20-goal barrier for the first time in his career. They have dovetailed beautifully; Vokes has been the target man, Ings the predator. The latter was named the Championship's player of the year. Dyche should scoop the managerial award.
His fortunes, like Burnley's, have been transformed. Sacked by Watford in 2012, when new owners preferred to appoint the more glamorous Gianfranco Zola, Dyche did not receive a rapturous reception in his early months at Turf Moor. There were gripes among fans accustomed to attacking – and sometimes defensively suspect – football under Eddie Howe, Owen Coyle and Stan Ternent that the newcomer was too focused on keeping clean sheets.
Not any more. The gravel-voiced Dyche is now nicknamed the "Ginger Mourinho". He has constructed the division's tightest defence but the raiding right-back Kieran Trippier also belongs among the division's most creative players. It is part of a wider blueprint that is not remotely revolutionary, but instead reflects old-fashioned values.
Dyche's side play a traditional 4-4-2 and his work ethic is reflected in a high-energy pressing game. A straightforward approach is mirrored by his players' wholehearted efforts. Their team spirit is apparent in a refusal to be beaten and Burnley lost only three times before the end of March. On the pitch, it may be a pragmatic promotion. Financially, it is a miraculous one.
Dyche's transfer outgoings amount to just £450,000 and only three regulars - the goalkeeper Tom Heaton, the winger Scott Arfield and the borrowed Michael Kightly – are his signings. As the low-profile, low-spending antithesis to QPR, they have proved promotion can be accomplished on a budget. The scale of the achievement is reflected in the figures. Burnley's turnover for the 2012-13 financial year was £15.3m. Participation in the Premier League is thought to be worth £120m.
It may afford Dyche a belated chance to buy but Burnley were careful not to bankrupt themselves in their last season in the top flight. With nine players out of contract, he could reshape his squad but loyalty suggests some will be retained.
Burnley will begin next season without Vokes, who is sidelined by a cruciate knee injury, and, Ings and Trippier aside, their ranks may not contain too many players who are expected to prosper in the Premier League.
Middlesbrough's Jonathan Woodgate said he believed a joint XI from the two teams would feature more from mid-table Boro than Burnley's promotion winners. It was part criticism, part compliment, a sign of the power of Burnley's teamwork and of their continuing capacity to confound expectations.
Predictions of a swift return to the Championship will abound, and not just from those who expected them to go down to League One this year, but there is a precedent for an unglamorous British manager to focus on defensive solidity and keep up a side widely deemed to be relegation fodder. Instead of being the "Ginger Mourinho", Dyche's next task is to prove himself the goateed Tony Pulis.
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