Dyche sacked - the man behind the manager

I've worked with the last nine permanent Burnley managers, and a couple of caretakers.
NORWICH, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Sean Dyche, Manager of Burnley reacts  prior to the Premier League match between Norwich City and Burnley at Carrow Road on April 10, 2022 in Norwich, England. (Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images)NORWICH, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Sean Dyche, Manager of Burnley reacts  prior to the Premier League match between Norwich City and Burnley at Carrow Road on April 10, 2022 in Norwich, England. (Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
NORWICH, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Sean Dyche, Manager of Burnley reacts prior to the Premier League match between Norwich City and Burnley at Carrow Road on April 10, 2022 in Norwich, England. (Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images)

But rarely have I had the kind of relationship I have enjoyed with Sean Dyche, even taking into account the length of his time in charge.

He came in and changed the time of press conferences, which would take place after the Burnley Express deadline on a Thursday morning, but ensured I would be looked after by allowing me to call him on his journey north from Northampton.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

You could tell where he was by the reception you had - if he sounded like Norman Collier, invariably he was going past Walker Park on the M65.

And you would often get Ian Woan listening in and chipping in with his typical Scouse wit.

Dyche said when he was appointed that he would never give anything off the record, and he stayed true to his word, even when you tried to coax something out of it.

He always played with a straight bat to anything you threw at him, but he always gave you a good line, and often a statistic that led you to look at a situation from a different perspective.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

More often than not, we would also talk about music - a little look into the man behind the manager.

He was a former Hacienda regular, like myself, albeit a little earlier than me, while he spoke at length about seeing Oasis at Knebworth in 1996 with some of his former Nottingham Forest teammates, at the side of the stage in the Creation Records tent, having arrived in style in stretch limousine.

A big fan of The Jam, the Style Council, Kasabian, the Foo Fighters, Royal Blood among many others - he was also thrilled to hear of a new band from his native Kettering band called the Temples, who I told him about, downloading their debut album when he got home and texting me his thoughts.

He often listened to audiobooks in the car to training - I remember him recommending Morrissey's autobiography, and being amused that it was narrated by David Morrissey!

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In his last pre-match press conference ahead of Norwich, when the cameras were switched off, chat would turn to the time he saw Prince at the O2 - if I had a pound for every time I'd heard that one - the perfect casting of Peaky Blinders, and castigating me for never seeing the Da Vinci Code, before explaining that the book is better than the film.

Journalists from far and wide came to his press conferences, because he gave you as much time as you required.

It wasn't a case of six questions and that's that, he would entertain you as long as you could come up with anything to ask.

And you could ask anything. Even if he didn't agree with what you were saying, there was never an issue or falling out.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I never saw him lose his rag with anyone at something they had written or said - he understood the media game.

And on top of being just a good bloke, he was, he is, a damn fine football manager.

I might be a professional, but I'm also a fan, and he has taken this club of ours on a ride none thought possible.