Burnley FC - Premier League review 2023/24

The 2023/24 Premier League season is over, and if you're a Burnley fan, it couldn't have come soon enough.

What started off with so much promise, after a record-breaking season in the Championship, soon became a scramble for any sense of cohesion and ability to retain possession of the ball for any period of time.

So let's recap. Over the summer of 2023, Burnley attempted to secure the permanent deals of two of our most influential players of the season - Nathan Tella from Southampton and Ian Maatsen from Chelsea. Burnley and Southampton played hardball with each other and Burnley refused to stump up the £20m asking price and Tella subsequently moved to Bayer Leverkusen where he has won the Bundesliga in his first season and reached the final of the Europa League.

Maatsen on the other hand flat-out refused to join Burnley on a permanent transfer, instead choosing to fight for his place in the Chelsea team after a few good games in their pre-season friendlies. 

Zeki Amdouni

The two massive influences were replaced with Zeki Amdouni, a £15m striker who had scored 25 goals in 58 appearances the previous season for Basel, and Hannes Delcroix a left back nicked from Kompany's former club Anderlecht for around £2.5m.

Amdouni was unproven both in the squad and in English football and the Premier League, whilst Delcroix felt like a cheap quick fix after Maatsen left us at the altar.

Jordan Beyer joined permanently, as did Michael Obafemi. Dara O'Shea came in to help fill the void Taylor Harwood-Bellis left at the end of his loan spell, and despite fans crying out for a centre midfielder, striker and left back, we were overwhelmed with wingers such as Luca Koleosho (£2.5m from Espanyol), Nathan Redmond (free from Besiktas), Aaron Ramsey (£14m from Aston Villa), Wilson Odobert (£10m from Troyes), Jacob Bruun Larsen (on loan from TSG Hoffenheim), Mike Trésor (from FC Basel). This, remember, when we had two great wingers in the shape of Zaroury and Benson.

James Trafford

Other reinforcements came with two more goalkeepers Lawrence Vigouroux (free from Leyton Orient) and the England Under 21s goalkeeper, James Trafford (from Manchester City). Trafford came with a whopping £17m price tag and high expectations.

In midfield the Sander Berge (£12m from Sheffield United) and Han-Noah Massengo (free from Bristol City) were the only incomings.

Now you could argue that any football fan is never entirely happy with their club's transfer dealings, but on the face of it, it looks like a lot of wingers - six in fact, to add to those we already had...  Benson, Zaroury, Twine and Churlinov.

But let's put transfers aside and get behind the manager, because that's what we do at Burnley. Vincent Kompany came in as an unknown and smashed the Championship in his first season, let's give him a chance in the Premier League and trust his methods.

Well that is all easy to say to begin with, but when you watch your team go from playing fast, fluid and dynamic fooball last season, to barely being able to pass the ball 10 yards to another teammate, game after game after game after game, there has to be a point when things change. 

Vincent Kompany

Apparently not for VIncent Kompany. The man we had put our faith into return us and keep us in the promised land of the Premier League was being stubborn in his tactics and style of play - the problem was that the team hadn't gelled to play that way. Starters from last year we jettisoned with Zaroury and Benson not even making the bench, and the new players had not acclimatised to the style of play and link-up movement yet. 

It felt as though Kompany didn't know his best team and was just plucking out names from a hat. At the beginning of the season Charlie Taylor was out in preference to Vitinho or Delcroix at left back, both wingers changed every match and there was substitutes were questionable too. 

The whole team looked naive and weak in the first half of the season. They seemed to have the belief to attack, but not break through the defensive line, and then leave themselves open to the counter again and again.

The new star goalkeeper James Trafford was heavily criticised for being too weak and not commanding his area, especially when a goal for Luton was given after he was shoved out th way by Adebayo. Aaron Ramsey, another big money buy, was another letdown, again being too weak for the Premier League and not being able to do anything worthwhile.

'Aro' Muric

It wasn't until Kompany bit the bullet and put Aro Muric back between the sticks, did the results start improving - but only a little bit. Muric played excellently for a couple of games before some silly errors cost us goals and points, but on comparison Muric was much more commanding, and this was backed up by the best save percentage in Premier League at 79.8%.

A little bit of form came together as Kompany found a team that was beginning to click. Jacob Bruun Larsen and Wilson Odobert started regularly and Josh Brownhill was replaced by Josh Cullen in midfield to help shore things up a bit defensively. 

As the January transfer window arrived it was clear we needed support. We weren't scoring and we weren't defending well and this was reflected in the League table. Fans we calling for Benson and Zaroury, but Anaz was sent off on loan to Hull, and Roberts to Leeds, and Benson was promoted to the bench.

Maxime Esteve

David Fofana, a striker from Chelsea came in to help Amdouni and Foster - the latter of which had taken a mental health break mid season - and two defenders in Maxime Esteve (CB) and Lorenz Assignon (RB). 

Fofana started out well with a couple of goals to reinvigorate the spirit of the team and Esteve and Assignon certainly provided more stability to the back (and Assignon is pretty decent going forward too), but it wasn't enough. 

The points tally first half of the season was a measly 10 points, with only 14 in the second half. It's desperately depressing. 

Every pundit and his dog was telling Kompany he had to be more pragmatic and tweak his tactics and eventually he did - still playing with the same short passing style, but with better positioning and more awareness of threats, but it was too little too late. The lesson had not been learnt quick enough for Burnley to survive in the Premier League this season.

Lorenz Assignon

It's almost as if Vincent isn't fussed about being relegated, and for a while I was on that thought train. It was obvious by December that we were going down on this form, and so why not use it as a learning experience and take these lessons for when we come back up hopefully the season after next - but with what has been going on in the last week, (Kompany to Bayern), I look at Kompany and ask whether he actually cared whether we were relegated or not in the first place. 

Sure there was a three year plan to get up back to the Prem after Dychey left and Pace took over, but we'd made it - we could have stayed up if perhaps he'd cared enough.

So what now? Well the idea was that Vinny had built his squad, he now knows what it is capable of. It is strong enough to compete in the Championship for sure, and give him a season to prepare for another crack at the Premier League with all that experience gathered.

No? What do you mean you're off to Bayern Munich...

Well that's just our luck, or maybe it is lucky? I know for sure there are some Clarets fans who never took a shine to Kompany and are glad to see the back of him, but be careful what you wish for... rumours are abound the club is considering Frank Lampard - and nobody wants that.

Our best hope, I think, is to get someone who can get a tune out of these players again and go from there. I'm not up for another big upheaval and change of play and tactics. 

It might also be a blessing for some of the fringe players like Benson and Zaroury who were frozen out this season. Connor Roberts is returning from loan too with Twine and some others - Weghorst (ahem)!

Craig Bellamy

I wouldn't be against Liam Rosenior, Will Still or Mark Robins getting the job, but I'm not a fan of Steve Cooper at all and Moyes is not for us. But I really think we should let Craig Bellamy and Mike Jackson have a crack to keep the continuity going.

To summarise then - high expectations were quickly dampened by a lack of teamwork, creativity, finishing and defending - everything basically. It was a shambles and the realisation quickly sank in that we were going down early in the season. From there on in it was a long, drawn-out death as we fooled ourselves into thinking that we might just survive after a getting a few results that weren't a loss. It was pathetic. 

That chapter is now closed, and now we await a new manager and new beginnings at Burnley... again.