Burnley’s prize for finishing seventh in the Premier League is a first European adventure in over half a century. Sean Dyche, now the leading English manager of his generation, insists the club should regard Europa League involvement as a “badge of honour”, which will be fair enough should Burnley actually manage to reach the sunlit uplands of the competition proper.
No fewer than three two-leg pre-qualification rounds stand in their way first, beginning with this week’s decidedly tricky trip to Aberdeen. Should Burnley survive this low-key Battle of Britain, there will be another qualifier in mid-August and a final play-off tie at the end of the month, the latter likely to pit the Clarets against a side dropping down from the Champions League.
So it could be September before Dyche knows whether reinforcements will be necessary for the Europa League group stage and, as everyone is aware, the transfer window this year will be long shut by then.
Burnley have never been big spenders and their response to their new situation has been the opposite of a supermarket sweep of extra squad players. So far this summer the club have let go a couple of stalwarts in Dean Marney and Scott Arfield and brought in absolutely no one.
“The challenge is undefined at the moment,” Dyche says, not unreasonably. “We don’t know whether we are going to have a chunk of six games in the autumn or not because we have rounds to get through first. We are skinny on numbers at the moment but then we always are.
“We need to get some players in and I’m sure we will be doing that but first things first. We have our targets for the new season, regardless of whether we are playing European football or not, and bringing those players in is more important than bulking up the numbers.”
Dyche is thought to be keen on signing Swansea’s Sam Clucas, a player he tried to buy from Hull, and West Brom’s relegation has also opened up the possibility of bringing Jay Rodriguez back to Turf Moor.
Those are exactly the type of players Burnley would have been looking to buy without the added attraction of European football or a lofty place in the league, so no one could accuse Dyche of harbouring delusions of grandeur. “Exactly right,” he says.
“A club like this one – and there are a few more of us in the Premier League – almost has to go back to the start point at the beginning of each season and remodel it all again. Not many people at the start of last season thought we would finish seventh, and reaching Europe has to be recognised as a massive jump for a club like ours, but our challenge remains the same.
“We would like to establish ourselves as a regular Premier League team, someone you just get used to being around year after year, and we are not there yet. We are not big or bold enough to be making grandiose statements about what we are going to do, just staying in the Premier League is always our start point. Only a start point, though. We would like to keep progressing and you have to be careful not to set your goals too low.”
Everton came a cropper in the Europa League after finishing seventh the season before last, though Dyche is undaunted. “There was quite a big shift in players at Everton at the start of last season, and that could be one of the reasons,” he argues. “It is never easy to build a new team in a relatively short space of time.”
What does make him wary is the fate of Stoke and West Brom last season, two teams few if any people would have marked down as relegation candidates. “I don’t think anyone was going around this time last year tipping those two to struggle,” he says. “It just shows that for the majority of clubs, by which I mean practically anyone outside the top six, remaining in the Premier League is not a given. I don’t mean to be negative, that’s just the reality.
“It’s hard work just standing still in this league, and that applies to everyone. Even right at the top, if the results don’t come, the sack will surely follow. That’s just the way football works. I don’t think there is a single manager out there who is unsackable, the way Brian Clough was at Nottingham Forest. In fact I think he may have been the last.
“Arsène Wenger did incredibly well to last 22 years at Arsenal, being successful all the time in terms of trophies or increasing the club’s revenue, but I’m guessing he was politely eased towards the door at the end. He was eased to a situation that, let’s say, suited the club.
“Everyone’s day comes in football, unless you move out yourself for what you perceive as a better position. All you can do is hope to leave some continuity behind, to leave a structure in place that allows the club to move forward.”
