Burnley Football Club
Nickname – The Clarets
Best PL Finish – 7th (2017/18)
Last season Burnley surprised everyone by finishing 7th in the Premier League and reaching European Competition for the first time since 1966.
Sean Dyche is a highly regarded manager who has morphed Burnley into a stable and impeccably run football club.
He has been at Burnley since 2012 and in that time has guided them through promotion and relegation equally. It is testament to his good work that his job has never been in jeopardy even in relegation seasons.
Burnley are not a club with unlimited funds and have to make shrewd transfers as well as relying on homegrown talent to achieve their success.
This season has been trickier for the Clarets. The Europa League seemed to have a greater detrimental effect than first thought and they have struggled for form throughout the season.
They are still not clear of danger but it will be no surprise if they grind out enough results to keep them safe.
Top 5 Record Transfer Fees (as of 14/01/2019):
1. Ben Gibson – £15 million (signed from Middlesbrough – August 2018)
2. Chris Wood – £15 million (signed from Leeds – August 2017)
3. Robbie Brady – £13 million (signed from Norwich – January 2017)
4. Matej Vydra – £10.98 million (signed from Derby – August 2018)*
5. Jeff Hendrick – £10.5 million (signed from Derby – August 2016)
* The fee is officially undisclosed but believed to be just under £11 million. (Transfermarkt)
Biggest Flop – Besart Berisha
Burnley, to their credit, do not have a huge amount of flops in their recent list of signings. There is one name which crops out however. Besart Berisha. The Albanian international was signed for £340,00 from Hamburg after impressing for Albania against England B in a match at Turf Moor
Burnley were not the only team to be after Berisha’s signature with many European teams eager to sign the Albanian.
However his career in Burnley could not really have gone much worse. He was ruled out for the entire 2007-08 season through injury.
He had subsuequent loan spells at Rosenborg and Horsens before being sold to Arminia Bielefeld in 2009 without making a single competitive appearance for Burnley.
Biggest Bargain – Chris Wood
Despite being their joint record signing, Chris Wood has proved to be very good value for money.
He scored 10 league goals in his first season with the Clarets as he helped fire them to the Europa League.
He was actually the 4th best value striker in the league last season with each goal costing Burnley just £1.6 million.
He already has 3 league goals this season and will be looking to add to his tally as he fights to keep his team in the Premier League.
Records & Trivia
• All of Burnley’s 5 most expensive signings have come from the English Championship.
• The sum of Burnley’s 5 most expensive transfers is roughly the same amount as Manchester City paid for Aymeric Laporte.
• Burnley made their first £1 million pound signing in 2000 when the bought Ian Thomas-Moore from Stockport County.
