Sean Dyche looks back on Burnley exit and relationship with Alan Pace

The 54-year-old, now out of work following his recent dismissal at Nottingham Forest, had his near 10-year stay at Turf Moor ended in April 2022 amid the Clarets’ Premier League relegation fight.

Caretaker boss Mike Jackson was unable to halt Burnley’s slide into the Championship, despite an initial upturn in form, bringing an end to the club’s six years of stability in the top flight.

Reflecting back on that period of his career, Dyche told The Football Boardroom podcast: “At first [when ALK came in] it was: ‘we’re really happy with what you’re doing, we want to continue’ and they signed me to a new contract, but they started pulling pieces out. The bit of the jigsaw, they started going: ‘oh, we’re going to change this’.

“They bring in a football director who used to be a lawyer and with all due respect, you’re going: ‘how’s that going to work then?’

“They were putting their own people into these positions and I’m not anti it, but you’ve got to have a skillset, so I started going: ‘hold on a minute’.

“I was having meetings in the end and the American guys came in, and they’re all good guys by the way, but I remember Alan kept saying: ‘I hear you’. So I told him: ‘you hear me, but you’re not listening, Alan. I’ve known you for a while now and you’re taking bits out of this which don’t need taking out’.

“He was overseeing things, asking why we haven’t got a report on this, why we haven’t got a report on that, so I go: ‘just talk to me, because I’ve had my hands over this for nine years, I know the warts and all and we all constructed it’.

“I knew [the sack was coming] long before. I knew I couldn’t work like this and they probably thought we couldn’t work with this guy, so there was no drama.

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“To this day, I’ve been alright when I’ve been sacked, I’m alright with people, because it’s a business. They’re not nasty people. It’s a business and they make decisions.

“The only bit to this day I can’t understand, was it cost them a lot of money to get rid of me and they put a team of novice hurdlers in. I went: ‘you’ve got eight games to go, you’re not in massive trouble. You’re in trouble but not massive trouble, certainly not insurmountable. I’ve been down that road many times’ and they allowed Ben Mee and Jacko [Mike Jackson] to take over, who is a great fella by the way.

“How does that make sense? If they would have put in a Sam Allardyce I would have gone: ‘fair play’. I would have said: ‘go on Sam, go and get on with what you’re capable of’.”

The podcast, presented by former Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow and journalist Henry Winter, also queried what changed at the club following the transition from Mike Garlick and John Banaszkiewicz to ALK.

“What changed business-wise, we went from an earthy, stable community-based thinking club to this kind of Americanised, model of social media everywhere, pushing that, wanting to do documentaries, which they did do of course,” Dyche added.

“In my opinion, and I’m sure Alan wouldn’t mind me telling you this because I’ve got no other angle, I always tell them the truth, I said: ‘you need to slow down, there are people who have been working at this club for a long time, there’s a fabric that holds this club and the community together, so for me it would be small steps’.

“But they wanted to do the stereotypical American thing in life, not just sport, in my opinion of course, knowing American people as I have done for many years, it’s everything now. It’s let’s push, let’s push, let’s be dynamic.

“That’s fine, but it’s just not that type of club or that part of the country. It needs to be softly, softly and brought in steadily, but they wanted to really run with it.”

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