It’s not all doom and gloom for the Clarets

Burnley’s relegation to the Championship was confirmed on Sunday after their 4-0 home defeat by Liverpool and the fans were understandably down in the dumps.

But all is not lost. Things at Turf Moor on the financial front look rosy and one or two acute summer signings and a shrewd manager could well see them back in the top flight in 12 months time. Fellow relegated teams Portsmouth and Hull are in far worse predicaments with both clubs in huge financial trouble, but Burnley will return to the second tier with their books in a healthy state.

Chairman Barry Kilby sensibly refused to go for broke in a bid to keep the Clarets in the Premier League and although his philosophy at the moment looks warped, I believe the Lancashire club will eventually become stronger despite being relegated.

“Obviously, after getting to the Premier League after 33 years, it hurts a little bit that we’ve gone down after just a year. We were determined that if we did go down we would go down strong, that’s what we’ve tried to do. We will have another crack and try to get back into the Premier League,” Kilby said.

Kilby has admitted using West Brom, a yo-yo team of recent years, as a model and the Baggies will be one of the sides replacing Burnley in the Premier League at the start of the next campaign.

Albion have never spent beyond their means in the top flight, instead they’ve tried to build a competitive squad gradually and it will be interesting to see how they get on next term. West Brom are certainly not a bad blueprint to follow and another Burnley promotion next season is certainly not out of the question.