While Leeds ended the Premier League season on a high yesterday, Burnley found themselves in a comparatively horrible situation after their relegation to the Championship was confirmed.
They entered the day as favourites to stay up, needing only to match Leeds' result away at Brentford in their home match against Newcastle. Unfortunately for them, they lost at Turf Moor while their rivals snatched a late victory in London.
Burnley now find themselves in an incredibly difficult situation. They were purchased by an American group in a leveraged buyout back in 2020, plummeting the club into debt as a result. The owners have since been hesitant to put any of their own money into the club.
Speaking on talkSPORT earlier today, Simon Jordan summed up their situation rather well. Essentially, they are going to have to have a huge clear-out of any valuable players unless the owners are willing to put their hand in their pocket.
😰 “You fear for Burnley.”
👀 “There’ll be a meltdown or a fire sale… Anything saleable is going to go!”
😡 “I feel sorry for the Burnley fans but the owners deserve what they’ve got!”
Simon Jordan gives his assessment of what the future looks like for Burnley. pic.twitter.com/m456L9EIOx— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) May 23, 2022
Either way, the immediate future for the club looks rather bleak unless they manage an immediate return to the top flight. Gary Neville is certainly concerned for them.
Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast, the Sky Sports pundit is worried that any parachute payments the club receive in the seasons ahead will be used to service their debt as opposed to improving their fortunes on the pitch.
It isn't just sporting disappointment. At the bottom, the economic disappointment is devastating. What's going to happen to Burnley? A leveraged buyout?
There's talk of £65million that needs to be paid back very quickly. Leeds would have been in significant trouble as well from the financial side of things as well.
That's the real pressure at the bottom. I've never been part of it and I never want to be part of it.
Well done to Leeds, they've been a great addition to the Premier League in terms of the way they've played, especially under Bielsa. They're a famous and big club.
Sean Dyche, who deserves a special mention, kept Burnley in the Premier League probably for longer than anyone could have imagined considering their resources and wage bill. They sacked Sean Dyche seven or eight games ago and it's not worked out.
It'll be a sad town in Lancashire today. You wonder when they're going to return...
The parachute payments give you a far better chance of returning to the Premier League than before, but you just wonder where that parachute money is going to go with this leveraged buyout. Is it going to go towards the team or it going to go to loans and other things?
I'm a little bit worried about Burnley Football Club tonight in terms of the next steps. We will see how it plays out, but it's a little bit concerning.
Time will tell how this situation is handled, although all indications up to this point suggest that Burnley could be in trouble moving forward.
They are likely to sell some of their best players this summer, with Ireland defender Nathan Collins likely to be one of a number of names targeted by other clubs after his stellar form to the end the season.
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