In October 2008 I went to Turf Moor to watch Burnley play Hull and the chairman noted in the programme that ‘One year in the Premiership would set Burnley up for 10 years.’ He may have achieved his wish sooner than he could have dreamt of. After another visit to Burnley in March 2008, I wrote an article called ‘The Burnley phenomenon’. Burnley will have the smallest population of any club represented in the Premiership and the area is far from prosperous. Yet the football club has punched well above its weight even before promotion to the Premiership.
In October 2008 I went to Turf Moor to watch Burnley play Hull and the chairman noted in the programme that ‘One year in the Premiership would set Burnley up for 10 years.’ He may have achieved his wish sooner than he could have dreamt of. After another visit to Burnley in March 2008, I wrote an article called ‘The Burnley phenomenon’. Burnley will have the smallest population of any club represented in the Premiership and the area is far from prosperous. Yet the football club has punched well above its weight even before promotion to the Premiership. Now they face their biggest challenge. There is a fine line between not spending enough and being relegated and splurging all their new found wealth and ending up like a Leeds or Southampton. They probably need to spend about £20m to have a reasonable chance of staying up and in particular they need to increase the size of their squad so they have more strength in depth. If anyone can do it, Burnley can.
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