Sports'He's key' - Peter Crouch feels that one man at Burnley will 'be very hard to replace'
Former Burnley striker Peter Crouch has told the club’s board to back Sean Dyche in the summer transfer window or risk losing him and potentially their Premier League status.
There had been some recent speculation over the manager’s future at Turf Moor after he publicly questioned the board when they failed to offer new deals to four players who left the club at the end of June.
As per Lancashire Live, Burnley are likely to be prudent with their summer spending this year as many Premier League clubs are forced to limit their budgets as a result of lost income from the global pandemic. However, Crouch has warned the Turf Moor hierarchy to back Dyche or face some potentially severe consequences.
Speaking on BT Sport [via Lancashire Live], the ex-England striker said: “Let’s be honest – he’s (Dyche) key to that football club. I get his discrepancies. How can you work with the three that have been let go of their contracts? Jeff Hendrick, Aaron Lennon and Joe Hart.
“They might not have all been starting every game but they were key in the dressing room, and they were fantastic squad members. You look at their bench at the moment, we’ve got young lads who haven’t played a minute.
“Are they going to spend? Are they going to back him? He’s having possibly their best ever season now and he’s working with his hands tied behind his back. It’s difficult. You can’t keep performing miracles.
“You know what will happen if they lose him. I’ve been at Stoke where you lose someone who is integral to the football club and all of a sudden you find yourself in the Championship.
“I think it’s going to be very hard to replace Sean Dyche, so you need to back him and give him what he needs so they can continue to finish in the top 10 in the Premier League.”
Crouch is quite right to cite his former club Stoke as an example of what can happen when a very influential figure leaves. Tony Pulis took the Potters into the top flight in 2008 and guided them to five comfortable mid-table finishes. Mark Hughes then build on those foundations to deliver three successive ninth-place finishes before being dismissed in 2018, the year in which they were relegated. Stoke now find themselves 17th in the Championship and fighting a battle to avoid the drop to League One.
Dyche is working with the Premier League’s second smallest and third least valuable squad in the division, as per TransferMarkt, yet he has them 10th in the table with the season approaching its climax. He has twice got them promoted to the top flight and Burnley will have a fifth successive year at the top level in 2020/21. Before Dyche’s appointment in 2012, they had played in just one of the first 20 Premier League seasons.
Another feather in their cap was their draw at Anfield on Saturday, becoming the first team all season to take points off champions Liverpool on their home patch in the Premier League, and they are currently level on points with an Arsenal side who spent £72m on one player (Nicolas Pepe) last summer – by way of comparison, Dyche has spent just over £47m altogether on new signings over the last two years (as per TransferMarkt).
Dyche has utilised his limited resources extremely effectively at Burnley and established them as a Premier League club, much like Stoke a few years ago until their 2018 demise. Crouch’s words of warning should resonate with the Turf Moor hierarchy if they want to ensure that their manager doesn’t walk if he is undermined in the transfer market.
Burnley fans, do you agree with Crouch’s verdict? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below!
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