Alan Pace - my view.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

It would be fair to say Vincent Kompany’s Clarets have not exactly set the world of football on fire in their latest escapade back into the English Premier League. Four points from thir**** games bears testimony to a shockingly poor sequence of results; dismal match statistics and six straight home defeats on the bounce from the time when the season opened is unenviable to say the very least.

From outsiders looking in, with the Clarets firmly rooted at the bottom of the league there is genuine amazement that Vincent Kompany is still the manager at Burnley Football Club. Here is the first rub. The Clarets have a highly unusual Chairman in Alan Pace who is the majority shareholder and likely operates as the final decision-making Chief Executive. In other words what Alan Pace says goes. It is is equally apparent he does not do knee jerk or visceral reactions when things are not going exactly to his grand design.

Here is the second rub. Alan Pace made it 100% clear in August 2022 he has a plan; a business model that would be wrapped up tightly inside a five-year consolidation project. It is now equally obvious a poor start to the new English Premier League campaign is not going to derail his mission. Pace sacked Sean Dyche following a decision he did not take lightly and hired Vincent Kompany to fill the vacant managerial spot.

In Vincent Kompany he has a manager who epitomises the term, “Cool, calm and collected”. The ex-Belgium and Manchester City captain and stalwart is probably only just behind Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp as the coolest of a current litter of managerial cool cats. Kompany did not disappoint, he won last season’s Championship at a canter and earnestly claims, "I'm ever so proud of everything I'm able to do here, (at Turf Moor) beyond what people can imagine. It's a fire that gets me up very early in the morning and I'm passionate."

It is only my own opinion, but I see no way Alan Pace will not stick behind Vincent Kompany and continue to support his choice of manager following Dyche’s departure. Already Kompany’s team is staring to narrow the absolute and given gulf in class between the intensely competitive level of the Championship and the guile and wit of the English Premier League. It is both refreshing and reassuring in equal measure that Burnley Football Club are not at risk of the whims and fancies of a volatile and moody Chairman.

I hope with every muscle and sinew that Vincent Kompany can and will reward his Chairman with an inspired sequence of results and repeat the miracle of last season. Now that really would be something to dress Burnley Town Hall up for. (TEC).

Attachment 25270

[kritichris]

But did this 5 year plan include being humiliated in year 2 and breaking all the wrong kind of records?

[ClaretinBudapest]

Well said BT.We should get behind VK, the players and Alan Pace.They gave us so much pleasure last season and it should not be forgotten.VK is closing the gap-that was evident on Saturday.

[Supersub6]

I'm with you on this BT.
The problem is that, these days, people generally are expecting that you just add water, or ask Alexa, and everything happens instantly.
They would look at a five year plan and consider that to be a ridiculous aim ---they expect it to happen this year!
The main thing this season, wherever we finish, is to gain knowledge and experience of what is needed in the Premier League,, learn from it and use that as a spur.
Every week is a learning curve and there are still 25 matches to play this season, 38 or 46 next season and the two seasons following. Let's see where we are then ------if they see the plan through and are not forced to change things because of fan pressure.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I'm with you on this BT.
The problem is that, these days, people generally are expecting that you just add water, or ask Alexa, and everything happens instantly.
They would look at a five year plan and consider that to be a ridiculous aim ---they expect it to happen this year!
The main thing this season, wherever we finish, is to gain knowledge and experience of what is needed in the Premier League,, learn from it and use that as a spur.
Every week is a learning curve and there are still 25 matches to play this season, 38 or 46 next season and the two seasons following. Let's see where we are then ------if they see the plan through and are not forced to change things because of fan pressure.

Season tickets will sell out again next year Supersub6, I heard on Saturday even the waiting list to get one is closed.

[sinkov]

It would be fair to say Vincent Kompany’s Clarets have not exactly set the world of football on fire in their latest escapade back into the English Premier League. Four points from thir**** games bears testimony to a shockingly poor sequence of results; dismal match statistics and six straight home defeats on the bounce from the time when the season opened is unenviable to say the very least.

From outsiders looking in, with the Clarets firmly rooted at the bottom of the league there is genuine amazement that Vincent Kompany is still the manager at Burnley Football Club. Here is the first rub. The Clarets have a highly unusual Chairman in Alan Pace who is the majority shareholder and likely operates as the final decision-making Chief Executive. In other words what Alan Pace says goes. It is is equally apparent he does not do knee jerk or visceral reactions when things are not going exactly to his grand design.

Here is the second rub. Alan Pace made it 100% clear in August 2022 he has a plan; a business model that would be wrapped up tightly inside a five-year consolidation project. It is now equally obvious a poor start to the new English Premier League campaign is not going to derail his mission. Pace sacked Sean Dyche following a decision he did not take lightly and hired Vincent Kompany to fill the vacant managerial spot.

In Vincent Kompany he has a manager who epitomises the term, “Cool, calm and collected”. The ex-Belgium and Manchester City captain and stalwart is probably only just behind Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp as the coolest of a current litter of managerial cool cats. Kompany did not disappoint, he won last season’s Championship at a canter and earnestly claims, "I'm ever so proud of everything I'm able to do here, (at Turf Moor) beyond what people can imagine. It's a fire that gets me up very early in the morning and I'm passionate."

It is only my own opinion, but I see no way Alan Pace will not stick behind Vincent Kompany and continue to support his choice of manager following Dyche’s departure. Already Kompany’s team is staring to narrow the absolute and given gulf in class between the intensely competitive level of the Championship and the guile and wit of the English Premier League. It is both refreshing and reassuring in equal measure that Burnley Football Club are not at risk of the whims and fancies of a volatile and moody Chairman.

I hope with every muscle and sinew that Vincent Kompany can and will reward his Chairman with an inspired sequence of results and repeat the miracle of last season. Now that really would be something to dress Burnley Town Hall up for. (TEC).

Attachment 25270

The above may be your view mon ami, just your opinion, but for what it's worth I agree with you. Sacking Vinni will not have crossed Mr Pace's mind. This is a long term project, Mr Pace has already said that promotion put us ahead of schedule, although I'm sure he'd prefer it not to happen, I doubt he's too concerned about relegation, it will just put us back to where he expected us to be anyway, in the Championship with a squad of young players improving and increasing in value by the month.

We might be bottom of the league, but I doubt there's a manager in football more secure in his job than Vinni.

[chastenor]

The above may be your view mon ami, just your opinion, but for what it's worth I agree with you. Sacking Vinni will not have crossed Mr Pace's mind. This is a long term project, Mr Pace has already said that promotion put us ahead of schedule, although I'm sure he'd prefer it not to happen, I doubt he's too concerned about relegation, it will just put us back to where he expected us to be anyway, in the Championship with a squad of young players improving and increasing in value by the month.

We might be bottom of the league, but I doubt there's a manager in football more secure in his job than Vinni.

I hope this isn't true. You can't have four points after thir**** games and hope to stay manager. That is totally bizarre

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I hope this isn't true. You can't have four points after 13 games and hope to stay manager. That is totally bizarre

Read Dave Thornley's latest piece Sir Chas, for once me and Dave are totally at odds with each other.


It is not very often our resident Clarets Mad match summariser Dave Thornley and the Clarets Mad editor have wildly different opinions, but this surely is one.

Dave opines: Put yourself in Alan Pace’s position for a moment, what would you do?

Scanning the league table and seeing the club you own; the club over which you are custodian; the club which represents the hopes and aspirations of a significant portion of the town in which it is based rooted to the bottom, with a long unbroken row of “L’s” highlighted in vivid scarlet.

What courses of action remain open to you? You have recruited a manager in whom you have placed an inordinate amount of faith, a manager you have regularly lauded publicly, invested heavily in and who was at the tiller of an extraordinarily successful Championship season. Do you retain that faith, or do you seek a change of fortune by changing the manager?

Pace made the tough decision to sack Sean Dyche two seasons ago when the club was meandering towards relegation, but Dyche never lost seven consecutives top flight home games, come to think of it, no other manager has.

With a background in corporate America, a subsection of populous not noted for its patience and tolerance of failure, Pace must have concluded that the current situation cannot be allowed to fester, and urgent action of some sort is required.

And what of Vincent Kompany himself? Surely, he can’t be at ease with how this season is unfolding. Is he convinced within the core of his being that he has the internal fortitude, and command of the inspiration required to turn this around, or is he merely going through the motions in the hope that things might get better?

In his post-match interview on Match of the Day after yesterday’s chilling defeat by West Ham at Turf Moor, Kompany stated that he would not be calling out his players after yet another loss on home soil. But where was the passion, where was the anger, why no bitter complaints about the first half penalty for the trip on Luca Koleosho which VAR denied?

Why did he project an impression of business as usual when fans like me wanted to see a reflection of the devastation we were all feeling? The ironic smirk when being asked questions was particularly hard to take.

It should have been so different. Jay Rodriguez’s second half penalty (another trip on Koleosho this time receiving its due punishment) had given the Clarets a deserved lead, but with the clock ticking down, and with four Burnley defenders in attendance, a right-wing cross was squeezed in at the near post, despite the attentions of a further two defenders, one of whom, Dara O’Shea had the final, unwanted touch.

Then as the game slipped into stoppage time, another right wing cross, this time deep to the far post, was volleyed in by Tomas Soucek and Burnley had lost yet again.

Contrast Burnley’s inability to see off a frankly poor West Ham with that of Luton’s fierce determination and implacable resolve to preserve their lead over Crystal Palace. Luton’s squad was compiled at a fraction of the funds lavished on Kompany by Pace, that must surely give the latter pause for thought.

Editor’s note: The game of football conjures up more opinions than clowns manage to raise laughs in a circus audience. Onwards and forwards. (TEC.)

[sinkov]

I hope this isn't true. You can't have four points after thir**** games and hope to stay manager. That is totally bizarre

Alan Pace has said he didn't expect us to be promoted last season, that put us ahead of schedule. Last summer Vinni signed a whole shedload of promising young players who should increase in value over the next couple of years. There did not seem to be any regard given to signing experienced players expressly with the purpose of surviving in the PL in the short term. That did seem bizarre, but supposing the reason for that was because he was told by Mr Pace not to worry about survival, just stick to the plan and sign players with the potential to increase in value.

The above may seem fanciful, but it does explain what was a bizarre transfer window, and if Vinni was simply sticking to Mr Pace's plan there is no possibility Mr Pace is going to replace him.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Alan Pace has said he didn't expect us to be promoted last season, that put us ahead of schedule. Last summer Vinni signed a whole shedload of promising young players who should increase in value over the next couple of years. There did not seem to be any regard given to signing experienced players expressly with the purpose of surviving in the PL in the short term. That did seem bizarre, but supposing the reason for that was because he was told by Mr Pace not to worry about survival, just stick to the plan and sign players with the potential to increase in value.

The above may seem fanciful, but it does explain what was a bizarre transfer window, and if Vinni was simply sticking to Mr Pace's plan there is no possibility Mr Pace is going to replace him.

I think that just about sums up the current situation mon ami. Congruence for once!