Fabio Celestini admits Clarets must face-up to their ‘new’ reality
Burnley boss Fabio Celestini has told his players they must accept the reality of their relegation battle and fight every centimetre to stay in the Championship, after a disastrous start to the season.
Burnley boss Fabio Celestini admits everybody connected with club must confront the reality of the situation.
The Clarets went into the 2026/27 Championship season with high hopes of bouncing back strongly after relegation from the Premier League.
After all, under Vincent Kompany in 2023 and then Scott Parker in 2025, the club had won promotion - with 100-plus point seasons - at the first time of asking after dropping out of the top flight.
Going back further, Sean Dyche led his side to the Championship title in 2016 - 12 months after they had suffered the ignominy of relegation.
That signalled a golden period in the club’s recent history as they enjoyed six consecutive seasons, including one seventh-place finish, in the top tier
Indeed since the first promotion success under Dyche in 2013/14, the Clarets have not finished outside the top 22 places in English football.
However, this season looks very different, after just 15 games of the campaign, from the previous decade or so.
The Clarets are firmly rooted in the bottom three - five points adrift of safety - with the dreaded relegation word on the tongue of Celestini following the capitulation against Cardiff City last weekend.
Losing 5-4 after being 4-1 up against the Bluebirds constitutes a new low in a season which has brought just one win and seen the Clarets lose 23 points from winning positions.
Celestini knows his men must get their heads around their current predicament - and fast.
The new man has had the chance to get his message across this week on the training ground with the season paused due to the international break.
He said; “You have big expectations, you come back from the Premier League, you go back to the Premier League, and we are for sure at the beginning of the season talking about coming to the Premier League.
“But now we must see the reality in front and fight every centimetre, because we must play our life every game, every centimetre, every second.
“I think maybe it’s what has not happened before, to not understand which situation we can go.
“Now I think with the international break, we must go to the reality in front and say, ‘Okay guys, that’s our situation’.
“We must accept what are we working for, to change the dynamic.”