"A really interesting one"; Sutton touts Burnley's Sean Dyche for Celtic job

By David Walton

March 9, 2021

Chris Sutton believes that Burnley boss Sean Dyche would succeed at Celtic if given the appropriate tools.

English-based pundits such as Jamie O’Hara and Darren Bent put forward the idea of Dyche to Celtic last month [TalkSport]. However, the club haven’t been linked with a move or indeed an interest in the English Premier League boss.

Dyche started his managerial career with a one-year stint at Watford. However, he’s made his name with Burnley over the course of his nine-year spell as manager. Throughout that period, he’s managed to get his team promoted to England’s top-tier twice, bag a top-half finish, and qualify for European football for the first time in over half a century.

All of that whilst working on a limited budget. And Sutton believes he deserves to be given an opportunity to thrive at a bigger club as he bigged up his ability to maximise his players’ abilities.

“Really interesting”

Speaking on the Record Celtic podcast, Sutton said: “I do think that Sean Dyche really deserves to be given an opportunity at a bigger club than Burnley. It’s whether he’s had enough of the Burnley project – I think he’s a really interesting one.

“He gets tarred with this brush that Burnley are just a lump it team. But he has worked wonders on a small budget. I know they went down when he first went in but he got them bouncing back, got them back up, built and structured the club. They’re now regulars in the Premier League.

“I think that’s an amazing achievement. The fact he’s organised the team so well – he needs eventually to be given an opportunity at a bigger club. He’s not a dafty, he’ll understand about brands of football and whatever. But give him the correct tools and I’m sure he would do really well at Celtic.”

Sean Dyche doesn’t feel like a good fit for Celtic for several reasons

You can understand what Chris is saying and it does all stand up. He’s performed miracles with Burnley and on shoestring budgets at that. At least at Premier League level anyway.

His record signing only cost £13million [The Guardian]. Even then it was to sign Republic of Ireland international Robbie Brady, who’s recently been linked with Celtic [Scottish Sun]. Burnley don’t shop in the same hemisphere as some of their league rivals, yet they consistently stay in the division.

However, it’s important to recognise that Dyche is hardly a serial winner. He’s only won one competition in management, and it came back in 2016 when his Burnley side won the English Championship. Outside of that, he hasn’t lifted a thing. That would be a potential concern given there would be a major question to answer about his ability to perform consistently in a title-race.

Burnley manager Sean Dyche / (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

Dyche untested when it comes to Celtic-level pressure

Dyche has never managed a club that has pressure on it to win every week. The difference in both standards and intensity between both the Clarets and the Hoops would be immeasurable. There’s no guarantee he would acclimatise well to that.

You then have Dyche’s style which doesn’t impress. He favours a more direct approach. You could describe his teams as being honest without a lot of flair. Getting the ball on the deck and playing passing moves isn’t what Dyche has been all about. Throughout his time down south, he hasn’t moved to change this style, despite Brendan Rodgers labelling him as “very progressive” last year [FourFourTwo].

Whether that be down to the fact that he doesn’t have the resources is another matter. But the fact is Dyche hasn’t worked on the kind of football Celtic fans like to see throughout his managerial career. There just feels like there are too many question marks to make him feel like a good fit. Stranger things have happened of course.