Burnley’s Revolutionary Relegation Could Change The Premier League

It took three months, but finally, Burnley managed to claim three points in 2024.

The Clarets were helped significantly by a moment of madness from Brentford defender Sergio Reguilon, who after less than 10 minutes decided to shove over Vitinho.

A sending-off and penalty goal provided the platform for Burnley to beat the West Londoners 2-1. However, the visitors were not without chances to take something from the match, which demonstrated precisely why Burnley has struggled this season.

"This was big for us," manager Vincent Kompany told the BBC postgame, "we can't keep putting out performances and not get results.

"We started well. We didn't wait for the game to happen and forced them to make a mistake early doors.

"Maybe if we sharpen our tools a little bit more we could have [scored] more goals, but if you've not put the result to bed you have to grind it out. We did that and we got the result."

Given the sparsity of success at Turf Moor this season it was understandable when the ex-Manchester City captain said he planned to enjoy the moment.

He added: “It feels great and I think we have to celebrate.” It’s a day where we won, we got the three points and I think the way we’ll handle this is we’ll really enjoy this moment today and then tomorrow we go back to work.”

Kompany, or more specifically his style of play, has been regularly blamed for Burnley’s struggles this season.

The repeated criticism is that Kompany’s Clarets are not pragmatic enough and should draw inspiration from the previous Premier League iteration of the club built on a rugged style that put stubbornness in defense over ambition in attack.

An illustration of the porous backline can be seen in the whopping 64 goals conceded this season, already nearly twice as many as they gave away in the whole of the previous campaign.

Just nine games remain for Burnley to save itself from relegation and with a mere 17 points, it looks like by the end of the season the team will find itself back in the Championship.

But interestingly unlike fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United or Crystal Palace, there has barely been a whisper of managerial change.

Kompany is the Clarets man who the owners appear wedded to.

The Southampton Way

There must be an appreciation in the club’s leadership that Kompany’s team is one of the most inexperienced in the division and he therefore should be granted a sufficient amount of leeway when assessing the struggles.

This after all was a deliberate decision. The approach in the summer to player acquisition was not, as is conventionally the case, to place importance on experience. Over $100 million was spent on new talent, but barely any of the players were over the age of 25.

Most like Zeki Amdouni, James Trafford and Jordan Beyer had no Premier League experience, whilst teenagers Wilson Odobert and Luca Koleosho had a limited number of appearances altogether.

It is a strategy that could be compared to Southampton who attempted to revamp its squad with untested potential rather than established talent, before being relegated in the 2022/23 season.

The Saints have looked a far stronger outfit in the division below this year with their players having developed substantially with more time.

Although it was derided at the time, the approach meant Southampton was able to generate $200 million in player sales, a figure that almost eliminates the financial pain of relegation.

This begs the question; Is Burnley planning a strategy that factors in relegation by using player trading as a tool to offset the revenue hit?

It’s the type of question the club is unlikely to answer, but if that is the case and both Burnley and Southampton are successful it could pave the way for other clubs to follow.

It’s easy to dismiss a strategy that accounts for potential relegation as unambitious, but it’s actually incredibly bold. Soccer is plagued by short-term approaches which frequently contribute to rapid downward spirals.

The Sean Dyche-era Burnley is a case in point, the club stayed in the Premier League for many years, but the policy of buying for today and seeking to simply exist in the division meant there was never any type of platform to build success on.

It was also not very lucrative.

Southampton earned more money from selling Romeo Lavia and Tino Livramento, who’d played for just one season, than Burnley did with the entire core of a first-team squad who’d represented the club in the division for years.

The club was simply not developing saleable assets, which meant when relegation finally arrived there were no alternative revenue streams.

Being able to sell players you develop is a better business strategy and makes demotion far easier to manage if you’re planning for it.

The indications are that Burnley is well placed to manage relegation should it occur, as former NFL star and minority shareholder JJ Watt explained.

“Being on the board, being in meetings you don’t ever want to have to prepare for [relegation], but realistically it’s irresponsible if you don’t,” he said.

“Of course, we’re prepared for that situation, we’ve discussed all those things, but we’re fighting and doing everything we can to try and stay up.

“If the situation does arise, we’ll be prepared for it and we will prepare to bounce back up very quickly.”

If Burnley does make a success of relegation it might just transform the Premier League as we know it.