"When he first came he was dire - the football was poor and we managed to survive relegation- after that he improved results wise anyway - as you say technically two relegations really."
That is simply not the case army, when he arrived we had the worst defensive record in the League, Eddie had lost interest and we were shipping goals for fun. Dyche stopped the rot the minute he walked through the door and in his first two games against Wolves and Leeds we didn't concede a single goal, by the end of the season we had the 2nd best defensive record in the League. He did a superb job, he arrived at a club in freefall and turned it round overnight.
At the start of his first full season I remember us playing Sparta Rotterdam in a pre-season friendly, with David Jones replacing Chris McCann in midfield, we footballed them off the park, Scotty Arfield was added to the squad, Ingsy/Vokesy scored 41 goals between them and we pissed out of the Championship 8 points clear of Derby and 3rd top scorers in the League.
This idea that Dyche can only do defence is bollox, it's a rewriting of history. And he did it all again two years later when we were back in the Championship. Andre Gray this time, top scorer in the league by some distance and the Clarets joint top scorers. Not bad for a manager who, allegedly, only knows how to park the bus.
When he came Sinkov he did what he’s good at as you say - he stopped the rot - that didn’t mean it was entertaining to watch - when we got the Ings vokes partnership we played good football , and the next time we got promoted your right it was entertaining- but the Premiership years went sadly down hill for me.
I never come on and slate Dyche I always say / thank him for his services to Burnley.
I still can’t get away from the fact that it was un inspiring for seasons - a lot of travelling home and talking our defensive accolades and that the other team have the ball all the time.
As I’ve posted before Sinkov a decent fella and decent manager - who was a hand and glove fit for Burnley at the time - I think it just ran its course.
He was never given £100m to spend though Army so we will never know whether the dire football we played was simply down to SD fulfilling his remit with the squad available-i.e.keeping us in the PL.I remember exciting football in the Championship with SD and all on a shoestring even by Championship standards.
The thing is VK could be another Pep but never at a club on our budget.Pep,Arteta or Klopp could never achieve the success they have without a spend of at least £500m on players and then with a wage bill to match.
The fact that SD kept us in that league and now and again gave those clubs a bitch slap was nothing short of a miracle when you think what he was given to spend.ironicaly even now his hands are tied at a massive club like Everton-the club recognised that he was the man to keep them in the PL on a shoestring until they dig themselves out of the FFP hole.Good luck to them but even now we have not seen what Dyche can do in the PL with a half decent budget.He should have been given that chance at BFC after everything he did for the club.
I watched virtually every Dyche managed match for five full seasons home & away.
On numerous occasions we could hardly fill the bench but you just knew after 90 minutes you would have watched 100% effort and probably still be in the game.
I can say with my hand firmly on my heart in all of the games I watched with SD in charge we never, ever managed to serve up the dross we did today.
A couple sat next me said "not a cat in hell's chance are they renewing their season tickets", three others all said the same.
It's grim up north. I actually felt for the couple of thousand of Brighton fans who are making the long journey home tonight. Awful.