Alan Pace opens up on the scrutiny that comes his way

Burnley owner Alan Pace admits he finds it “really hard” dealing with online abuse.

The Clarets chairman came under fire last season as the team continued their recent trend of Premier League struggle, suffering relegation with just 22 points to their name.

It’s the third relegation Burnley have suffered under Pace’s stewardship, although on both previous occasions they’ve bounced back from the Championship at the first attempt - something they’ll be aiming to repeat this coming term.

But poor results on the pitch usually brings increased levels of criticism and scrutiny away from it, something Pace has discussed on the For All The Saints podcast.

“There’s been different things,” he said.

“I don’t think people will ever really understand and I’m not sure that I do either, the first few episodes of threats of violence or anger to the extreme that you felt were uncomfortable, were really, really super hard to take.

“It’s really hard to understand why people think they have a right to be able to threaten you or think that whatever makes them okay, no matter what it does to you, is fine. That is hard.

“I’ve become more understanding and realistic that there is a percentage of the population that is unfortunately exceptionally negative, can’t see the positive sides of a lot of things and I’m sure they’ll always find a reason, whether it’s me or anything else, to be cast in that light for being the reason for their unhappiness. That’s hard, really, really hard.

“From where I sit, we think we’re trying to do a good job. It just doesn’t really resonate that somebody would try to hurt somebody, or try to make it bad for somebody else, I just don’t see or understand that.

“But there are certainly people that believe that is something I’m trying to do or I’m putting them to feel that way. When it turns to ultra-negativity, cursing, threats of violence, things like that, it makes it very, very hard and it makes me think: ‘why do I want that near me?’

“Sometimes I don’t and sometimes for a whole lot of reasons it’s easier to just shut the door and not let in.”

Pace admits the usual source of that negativity, social media, is something he tries to steer away from, especially during periods of poor form.

“When it gets negative it gets really ugly,” he added. “My daughter is a lot better at handling the positivity and actually turning negativity into positivity. She keeps trying to teach me to do the same and I should probably learn from her better.

“But I just tend to shut down and try to avoid it, because it’s something I don’t really understand.

“It was crazy that, when we first went to Spain, I was getting mobbed by literally thousands of people in a positive way that I’ve just never experienced. I didn’t know how to handle that and it was scary too, because it was like: ‘am I going to let these people down? Why are these people so excited about what I’ve done? Because at that point, it was nothing’,

“I’m a big believer in don’t focus on what I say, focus on what I actually do and then if I do the things that are positive and responsible, then you should be happy over the time, but not because of what I’ve done but because you’re happy with what we’re doing. That comes back to the collective community thing, we’re doing it all together.

“The negativity is hard, the criticism is hard and it’s difficult to understand why people feel that is okay. I get it all the time, they say we don’t understand English football, it’s our right, it’s this, it’s that.

“Coming back to the community side, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t stand up in church and yell at people or scream at people. I’ve even tried to explain to some of our fans, would you really do that to your own children? It’s not normal in the world I come from, but I’m just supposed to believe that is normal.”

When it was put to Pace that this type of culture represents the “dark side” of English football, Pace replied: “I don’t think it’s just English football, it’s football period.

“I’m not really sure why that is, that I feel like I’ve got this empowerment that I’ve got to let go and channel all of my anger and frustration and my meanness towards somebody.

“Maybe it’s just an outlet. If that’s what you do so you don’t channel it towards one of your family members or yourself, then I guess okay. But I’d love to find other ways for you to express those frustrations without the negativity.”