SINCE Sean Dyche was appointed Burnley manager two years ago today 67 of the 92 Football League clubs have changed manager at least once.
That puts Dyche 25th in what he calls the ‘hit parade’ of longest serving managers in the league.
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It is a frightening statistic that puts the longevity of managers at clubs into stark reality.
Statistics from the League Managers Association show that over the last five seasons the average reign of a manager across the 92 league clubs is 1.82 seasons, although for the Championship that drops to less than one full season.
That shouldn’t worry Dyche, for he is no longer managing in the second tier, and his job at Turf Moor looks safe for the foreseeable future.
He might have some way to go to catch Arsene Wenger at the top of the charts, but only four of the 92 have had the same manager for four years or longer.
Dyche is keen to build a positive long-term future for the Clarets, but he knows that can only be achieved if the results come on the pitch.
“You come in with long-term thinking but you know it’s a short-term fix,” he said. “When you come into a club you have to win games, the days of trying to build a club other than on the side of winning have gone, the stats will tell you that.
“You can’t walk into a club and think everybody is going to give you loads of time to do brilliant work and say ‘right, it’s a three-year plan’, it just doesn’t happen.
“All the strategy goes out of the window if you’re not winning games, fans demand that you win yesterday, the board eventually demand that you win yesterday, so you can’t be naive enough to think we’re going to build something for the future and it’s going to take three years, but it doesn’t matter what happens apart from building for the future. That’s naive.
“What you have to do is win immediately and then you plan and succeed, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a plan. So when I came in here I had a plan that I thought was viable, I thought it was doable and I thought it was achievable for this football club. I explained it to the board at my interview going right the way back to then and I’m pleased to say a lot of it has come true.”
After being appointed on October 30, 2012, Dyche won his first two games in charge of the club, against Wolves and Leeds, although he did have times of struggle during that campaign, twice going five games without a win, and once six without a win.
“The first season I was here was a transitional thing,” said Dyche.
“You have to win enough. There was a period when we didn’t and I was getting heavily questioned – fans, media, everyone – so it happens, that is part of the job, “That’s the thirst for what the market wants, the market wants winning, it wants it now, it wants it yesterday, it wants it before the manager even gets in, before the next manager comes in they say ‘well, he better win’, it’s as simple as that, bar none.
“You’ve got to be reality bound, all managers get it, I’m young and still learning but I still get it.
“I count what the stats tell you, but you can’t be afraid of that, you’ve still got to work authentically and at what’s important, both on and off the pitch, and that’s what I try to do.”
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