Reports have surfaced that Sean Dyche could look to depart Burnley this summer at the end of the season with the Clarets facing a financial crisis off the back of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dyche has been with Burnley for seven and a half years and is set to secure Premier League status for a fifth successive season. Working on a very tight budget, Dyche has turned Burnley into a solid Premier League outfit and also took them to the Europa League.
But these unprecedented times have seen a real strain on Burnley’s finances, resulting in the failure to extend the contracts of key players such as Jeff Hendrick and Aaron Lennon. Phil Bardsley was released but then penned a one-year extension.
That is believed to have resulted in a strained relationship between Dyche and Burnleychairman Mike Garlick, with senior figures at the club believing their relationship is broken beyond repair and the manager could walk out at the end of the campaign next month.
Speaking on the Eamonn and the Gaffers podcast, Dyche said: “I think the honest answer is that we've done a lot of work at Burnley.
“It’s how far you can keep the journey going, where it can go. So there's a reality to that.
“It is a good place to work, I like the people I work for and with so that's beneficial. I do have a reasonable say in quite a lot of the club. Not everything but in a lot of things.
“If the opportunity to come to somewhere that I thought would really enhance my chances as a manager to continue improving and continue testing myself, who knows?”
But last month the club released a statement to be “transparent with supporters, staff and stakeholders” over the “significant challenges” they face if the season is not restarted. The top flight resumed a fortnight ago but Burnley are forecasting big financial losses going forward as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dyche has been linked with West Ham before. Firstly when Slaven Bilic was under pressure and eventually sacked in 2017, then again before the Hammers appointed Manuel Pellegrini to replace David Moyes after he had steered the Hammers to survival.
However while neither move materialised, Dyche is known to have a big fan on the Hammers board in vice-chairman Karren Brady. When the Hammers sacked Pellegrini in December 2018, it was reported that Dyche was keen to speak to the club about the vacancy, though they eventually plumped for Moyes for a second time.
Brady has spoken about Dyche before, writing in her column for the Sun in 2017: “Yes, quick fixes can be popular with fans but if I had Sean Dyche at Burnley or Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, with four years’ service, I’d hang on to them.”
Also in late 2017, Brady was effusive of Dyche in another opf her infamous columns for a national tabloid newspaper. She wrote: "With a trim goatee, together with his well-razored hairline, he has the air of a man in complete control.
"Yes, he may come from boring old Kettering. Yet he looks even more of a Spanish grandee than Rafa Benitez.
"I’m sure Dyche has had offers but, as a journeyman player himself, he likes Burnley — a working-class football town through and through.
"It would take a major offer to tempt him elsewhere. But I’d like to see him given a bash, though."
Football.London understands that the board are keen to see Moyes turn the ship around after a run of just two wins in 13 games, strikingly similar to the form that saw Pellegrini get the heave in east London. Moyes' side are hovering dangerously above the relegation zone, only out of it on goal difference to Bournemouth and Aston Villa and the latter were beaten by Wolves on Saturday afternoon. West Ham have picked up just five points from the last available 33.
West Ham have lost both of their games since the resumption of football after lockdown, losing 2-0m to both Wolves and Spurs. They face Chelsea at London Stadium next Wednesday before a trip to Newcastle on Sunday.
