Philippe Auclair was asked what's happening to Bournmouth?

"What happens is that, something which I thought would happen much earlier and which is also what's happening to Burnley and it's really not casting doubt on the abilities of their coaches, but it's going stale.
It's basically clubs which are at the absolute upper... In terms of reach they cannot reach further than what they have done already. They haven't got the means to get bigger or better players. They cannot attract more players or more audience or whatever. So you're constantly fighting against this...
So after a while you imagine there's a kind of entropy which sets in the squads and in the clubs because both Dyche and Howe have been at the the clubs for a very long time and have done extremely well but there comes a moment when you have to ask questions of well where do you go? Is there anywhere to go, except down?"

Personally I think he nails it and echoes the Mail statement I often bring up 'Burnely cannot out run their circumstances forever'.
Which is why I'm quite sanguine about going down, I don't want to, but I accept that it is eventually inevitable unless there is a major change in circumstances.

Life is full of ups and downs.

The ups for Burnley, secured by the management, team and board is having a profoundly positive effect on Burnley and its people.

Long may it last and gravity be defied.

I too am quite sanguine about the fact we will eventually be relegated from the Premier League. I am, however, in no hurry to see it happen. The longer we can defy that inevitability the happier I shall be

To be honest, I feel like we have a duty to stay in the premier league just to stick it to all the fans of other clubs who are dying to see us relegated.

'So after a while you imagine there's a kind of entropy which sets in the squads and in the clubs......'

Entropy - a gradual decline into disorder.

What pomposity of writing! I'm not even sure that is the right word anyway. Staleness perhaps as he said earlier. But staleness is something that can happen for any long term manager and presumably the best ones either have techniques to deal with that or employ systems where it doesn't happen at all. Staleness can be dealt with by changing things in the right way. I'm not saying that is easy but it can be done.

But that's nothing to do with Burnley and Bournemouth's predicament of trying to stay where in financial terms they shouldn't be.

I don't think there is any inevitability about a club, or rather a team, playing above themselves like we do. It just means something special or extra has to be applied. We think, or thought at least, that that was Dyche. Maybe it still is.

Squarepusher wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:48 am

To be honest, I feel like we have a duty to stay in the premier league just to stick it to all the fans of other clubs who are dying to see us relegated.

Spot on

Hipper - Auclair is quite a cerebral writer, a fantastic investigative journalist (there are number of his articles in the Magic Money Tree thread on the corruption in African football) and great contributor to the Blizzard amongst other things.

the odds suggest that at some point we will fall short in the Premier league. Our duty to stay there as long as possible is as much to the 50 or so people that could lose their jobs at the club as well as the town which is just beginning to show the first signs of the positive impacts (inward investment) that a prolonged spell in the spotlight that is the Premier League can bring