Sean Dyche open-minded about prospect of Burnley takeover

Sean Dyche is open-minded about the prospect of a takeover at Burnley Football Club.
Sean Dyche when boss of WatfordSean Dyche when boss of Watford
Sean Dyche when boss of Watford

American sports investment company ALK Capital LLC is in talks to buy the club, and have recently visited the club's facilities, including the Barnfield Training Centre, with discussions believed to be at an advanced stage.

However, Dyche knows from personal experience that businessmen make business decisions, having been replaced as Watford boss after the Pozzo family takeover in June 2012.

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Despite having led the Hornets to their best finish in four years, he was replaced by Gianfranco Zola.

That was Burnley’s gain, as, four months later, he took over at Turf Moor after Eddie Howe returned to Bournemouth.

Dyche, therefore, is keeping his focus on what he can control.

Asked whether he was concerned or excited about the takeover talk, Dyche said: “ I don’t know, because you need to meet the people involved.

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”At the minute it’s all conjecture and rumours, I don’t know anything that you don’t know.

”So if someone took over the club, you’d have to meet them, you’d have to understand what they do and do they want you?

”Because obviously there was a takeover at Watford and they didn’t want me, I was out of the door.

”That’s the way it goes sometimes. That’s not just football, that’s business.

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”So all those things, before you worry about what they are going to do or not, you have to meet them and find out what their plan is but these are all rumours at the minute so there’s certainly been no meetings been had by me, that’s for sure.

”If someone took over a club and they bought it out, they’d want to speak to you and say, ‘Right, this is our plan, you’re part of it or you’re not part of it’.

”I’m pretty simplistic in my views on that sort of thing. Having been through it at Watford, it can happen if someone takes over that they don’t want you.

”Then that’s the way it goes. If they do what you, then plan accordingly and see what they want to do.”

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While Dyche will continue to control the controllables, he expects his players to follow suit and ignore the speculation: “I don’t think it’s got anything to do with the players to be honest. They’ve heard enough rumours about themselves, about me, or the different players who have been here.

“Now they’ve got as rumour about a takeover, but I don’t think it really affects them.

”And I don’t see why it should. They get on with their business. They want to play well.

”They want to improve, and do all the things that footballers do. We have done really well with that mentality here, so I don’t expect them to think about that too much. I certainly won’t. I’ll get on with my job as I always do.“

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The club has finished in the top 10 of the Premier League twice in the last three seasons, has no debt and owns their stadium and state of the art training facility, and Dyche can see why it is an attractive proposition: “Yeah. I can only imagine, knowing a bit about football and the finance in football - we are in good financial shape.

”It’s well-run in many different ways. There are challenges to the way we run it, but we’ve managed to find ways to make it work.

“The town supports the club, and the club supports the town. That’s a nice mixture, and I think it’s an authentic club.

”I can only imagine if there’s investors out there they’ l be thinking, yeah, there’s a lot to go on there.

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”There are a lot of simple things done very well. And if you are a business person, there is further development at the club. You can move forward on and off the pitch.

“I think the off the pitch thing comes down to finance obviously. I’ve worked with a few owners in my time , and they all have different views on how they want to run a football club.

”So I think if the rumours are true – and I really don’t know if they are or not – then they will have a good idea of the future they see for Burnley . But it is a healthy situation here, that’s for sure.”