Reviewing 2025/26

Joint favourites for relegation when the Premier League kicked off back in August and Burnley duly lived up to that tag once again, happily jumping between divisions and rarely giving their fans anything to cheer about whilst in the top flight. It's a sad state of affairs to have your supporters left hoping they stay in the Championship.

As nice as trips to Anfield, the Emirates and the like are, watching your team get pumped most weeks and only win four games out of thirty-eight must be pretty soul destroying. It's their model. It's worked recently. But it's not what football is about for me.

Looking ahead to 2026/27

It's been a rough pre season all round at Turf Moor. Maxime Esteve, Jaidon Anthony, Leslie Ugochukwu and Martin Dubravka all departed, whilst the £24m obligation to buy clause kicked in for Florentino from Benfica. A fee the club could no doubt have done without.

The Clarets start the new campaign under Nicky Hayen. A belgian manager who joins from Genk. Another brave move, appointing a boss with no experience of the English leagues. It could all backfire.

Court Offside Tip

A top 8 finish of 1/2 is potentially quite short in my opinion. I don't expect Burnley to be anywhere near the top 2 and could even see a scenario where they fail to reach the play offs. But, I couldn't bring myself to predict them to finish 9th or below as I can't remember a time when they actually did in the Championship. Hold fire on backing this for a few weeks. the odds won't drop much if they start well, but they sure will grow if they don't.