Alan Pace's vision for Burnley Football Club - new chairman speaks on a variety of topics

The press got the opportunity to speak to Alan Pace on Tuesday, with the new Burnley chairman holding court for over an hour.
Alan PaceAlan Pace
Alan Pace

Discussing a number of topics, and his vision for the club, here is a selection of the questions and his answers.

WHY BURNLEY?

“Burnley fit a number of things we felt were important to us long term.

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“The passion, operating structure and the opportunity for growth. And the ability for us to have an impact as a management team and organisation.

“One of the things that stood out is this club in this community is unbelievable, the way it is at the centre of the community and has brought it together.

“The longevity of the manager, the ability of him to have punched well above his weight and the financial stability of the way the club has been run all led us to the place we have come to which is that this a great opportunity.

“We believe there are some building blocks here we can work with.”

WHAT ARE THOSE BUILDING BLOCKS?

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“The Premier League is the greatest sports league in the world and that relationship between the community and the club, and to let people see and feel it, so there are two pieces.

“It is the way you interact with whatever team you support and the way they interact with you but also the way that they treat people.

“It is really important to us to see a very, very solid and historic relationship between fan, community and club.

“Where you sit in the country and the passion for the game in this part of the country, it is not a corporate environment, it is not a tourism environment, it is very much live, breathe, die Burnley football.”

HOW HANDS ON WILL YOU BE?

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“Initially I will be split between London, new York and here but probably 80 per cent of my time here.

“I am very hands on with the strategic vision and the ability to help people to achieve that vision. Not that I am going to be the guy who is going to re-wire the WifI.

“I will be hands on, I have already experienced a few things early on that need to change and you don’t do that unless you are living in it every day. If you come and visit once in a while you think everything is great and you just leave it to other folks. That is not our style or my style.

“I will be very hands on but that is not taking away from those that are doing the significant job that they have been doing and will continue to do.”

HOW DID THE MEETING WITH SEAN DYCHE GO?

“I thought the meeting went well.

“I had been looking forward to it for quite some time.

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“I don’t think anything changes other than he knows he has my complete support where he might have wondered or guessed.

“We are very, very big fans and we like consistency and longevity and we see what an amazing manager he is and a leader, which is important to us.”

YOU SEE HIM AS MANAGER LONG TERM, WOULD THAT BE FAIR?

“That’s absolutely fair. It’s up to him about that, but yes.”

HOW LIKELY ARE SIGNINGS IN THIS WINDOW?

“I will let him tell you what he is looking to strengthen and I will not get in his way nor make the mistake of doing that.

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“He does have some things he’s looking at. We’ll support him in what he’s looking at and if he wants to go forward with the things he wants to do then we will be there and support what needs to happen.”

HOW ARE DECISIONS GOING TO BE REACHED ON RECRUITMENT?

“Nothing is going to deviate from the way things are happening currently.

“I think you will see us get more involved on the analytical side and we are not the only club that is thinking about that.

“We are heavy users of data and analytics and that will probably evolve further as we go into our longevity here but I would expect it to stay fairly consistent at the moment.”

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Will much change budget wise or will it be a case of things moving more swiftly?

“I would have liked to have more time to give you a different answer but the prudence here is being able to move swiftly and support what needs to be done rather than the size of the chequebook.”

WHAT ARE THE LONG TERM AND SHORT TERM AMBITIONS?

“Short term we need to stay in the Premier League and do a really good job in this window.

“Long term we want to be Britain’s favourite underdog.”

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GROW THE CLUB?

“The ambition for the club should be interaction well beyond the boundaries of the local community and a lot of that takes something special that people can feel a part of.

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“We need to give them those opportunities and what they are we don’t yet know but our job is to connect people with what is happening and give them a reason to want to be involved.

HOW BIG A ROLE DOES THE ACADEMY HAVE TO PLAY?

“They have done a really good job of building a fantastic Academy I love the facilities and I think we can do a good job on expanding both the intake and the productivity of the Academy?”

DO YOU HOPE TO BUILD A MORE AMBITIOUS CLUB?

“I think so, we see the building blocks and this is a platform we see as an opportunity.

“There are things here we think can reach beyond where we are today.

“I can’t give you a timeframe.

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“If we are fortunate enough to still be here in 20 years then the ambitions will be very different to what they are today.”

HOW MUCH MORE IMPORTANT IS COMMUNICATION GIVEN FANS ARE NOT ALLOWED AT GAMES AT THE MOMENT?

“It is hugely important.

“I think it is like family. Everyone can relate to not being with loved ones.

“I very much understand that people love this place and this is their family and their home and they are not being allowed in so that has to be tough.

“The really important thing is to keep the communication.

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“We have to do a really good job of sharing things that are happening so they feel part of it”

DO YOU PLAN TO STAY ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

“I would like to stay on there

“There have been people greater and more important than I that have taken abuse on social media that is just not right

“As long as people treat people fairly and nicely I don’t see any reason not to because it is a great form to communicate.

“It is a communication tool and I do feel it is important to be on it. As long as people are respectful, and if that happens then I will be on there forever.”

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WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU WILL BE DIFFERENT TO OWNERS WHO HAVE RUN INTO TROUBLE?

“I don’t think you have ever seen anyone like me and you certainly haven’t seen anyone like me come in and run a football club and interact with the community and live in the community they are going to operate in.

“I would be reticent to say no-one has done that at this level but I think you are going to have a level of interaction that is very different and we do mean it when we say we are concerned about the long-term viability of this club as if we were a family member.”

DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE A SPRINKLING OF PLAYERS COMING IN IN THE OPENING FEW TRANSFER WINDOWS?

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“I would expect that we will be thoughtful in the process because that is what Sean has always done.

“He has always looked at what does he need and how does he go about achieving his goals and we will be very supportive in making sure that he can achieve his goals.”

WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST MESSAGE YOU HAVE HAD FROM THE FANS SO FAR?

“Keep talking but probably don’t say too much!

“It is a bit like meeting your future in laws for the first time, you don’t know how you are going to be received! Is it going to be a disastrous meal and you are never going back or are you going to be embraced as a long lost family member!

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“It has been nice to see and it feels like we haven’t done anything wrong yet. It is a bit of a honeymoon period and we would like to keep it that way but we are going to listen and hopefully they see that.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE?

“It is important but not essential.

“It is important because you have a billion people who see you and interact with you when you are in the Premier League

“You don’t have that same opportunity when you are not there so you want to be on that stage.

“It is like being an actor or an actress, you want to be on that main stage, you don’t really want to have to be wondering can you be on that stage?

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“So it is important but it also doesn’t mean that you can’t go and make an artsy movie sometime!”

HOW WILL BURNLEY BE ABLE TO REPAY THE LOAN TAKEN TO FINANCE THE DEAL?

“I do believe that there is a way to be financially responsible in your dealings that is sustainable. The loans that we have involved in this transaction are absolutely reasonable and in line with what can be supported by the club and will not take away from the ability to operate on a daily basis.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO KEEP TWO MEMBERS OF THE PREVIOUS BOARD?

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“We thought that coming in as new members of this family, taking on all of that without any semblance of advice or experience, would be very silly on our part.

“Having two key individuals that have been involved for quite some time and have got the building blocks in place, was really important.”

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