Club set up for next decade says John B

Clarets director John Banaszkiewicz believes that a mix of the old and new has set the club up for the next decade.
Former chairman John Banaszkiewicz believes the Clarets are well set for the futureFormer chairman John Banaszkiewicz believes the Clarets are well set for the future
Former chairman John Banaszkiewicz believes the Clarets are well set for the future

Banaszkiewicz, who stepped down from his role as co-chairman last month, is confident that the restructured regime at Turf Moor can build on the foundations already in place.

After working alongside Mike Garlick in his role since May 2012, Banaszkiewicz has been instrumental in the development of the club.

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He helped reclaim the ownership of the stadium and Gawthorpe in a ‘buy back’ campaign from Longside Properties and contributed to the redevelopment of the training facilities.

And Banaszkiewicz was among the interview panel to spot Sean Dyche as the perfect successor to Eddie Howe, a decision that aided the club’s rise to the Premier League.

“I was sad to be stepping down but I’m very proud with what I’ve achieved,” he said. “I’m still a very passionate supporter of the football club but it was a personal decision to have more time to focus on my family and business.

“It’s been quite an achievement and we’ve done great over the last few years, and even before that when I joined as a director at the end of 2010. I’ve done a lot in five years.

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“Today the football club is financially stable and is really well run in terms of the people involved. We’ve set it up for the next five or 10 years, particularly with our adventure in the Premier League. A lot of people envy our club with how well we’ve done things here.”

In addition to Garlick taking on full chairmanship at the club, David Baldwin has replaced Lee Hoos as Chief Executive while Frank McParland has been employed as the club’s sporting director.

Part of that restructure also saw Lee Darnbrough relieved of his role as head of analytics and talent identification.

“You don’t see everything behind the scenes with what we do and what the board does but there’s been a lot of restructure,” added Banaszkiewicz.

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“We’ve brought some expertise in, we’ve created an advisory group, we’ve put money in over the years when we didn’t have any and that’s helped buy the ground back and push for development in Gawthorpe and it widened the share ownership a little bit by getting more fans involved in these bonds.

“We’re organising our recruitment strategy because that’s really important. We hired Sean Dyche, we painted the ground, we’re building new offices, there’s lots of things.

“We’re doing all this which is great. We’ve done well on and off the pitch. We’ve worked incredibly hard.

“The finances from the parachute payments over the coming years will leave us in a very good position where we don’t need to sell anybody.

“Before we’ve had to sell key players but we’ll be looking more at the ‘buy’ side of things at the moment.”