Burnley have been told they have 'let Everton off the hook' by former Blues defender Martin Keown following the sacking of Sean Dyche as manager on Friday morning.
The Premier League relegation battle took a new twist to end the week as the Clarets announced the exit of their boss after almost a decade in charge at Turf Moor. The club have announced that under-23s coach Mike Jackson, assisted by academy director Paul Jenkins, U23s goalkeeping coach Connor King and captain Ben Mee have been asked to take charge of the team for Sunday’s game with West Ham United.
They currently find themselves four points behind Everton in the battle for Premier League survival after a demoralising defeat to bottom-placed Norwich City on Sunday. The Blues, meanwhile, had a rousing performance and a 1-0 win against Manchester United to celebrate.
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And the ex-Blues defender Keown has had his strong say on Burnley's decision to relieve Dyche of his duties. He believes his former side have been let off the hook by the decision, as he believes the manager should have stayed on until at least the end of the season.
He told talkSPORT : “I think the timing is a bit out, here. The timing is all wrong.
“Obviously they’ve only have four wins all season, so OK, but you’ve got to look at the games they can win. They’ve got a game against Watford coming up, they’ve four points behind Everton and I know they lost to Norwich, but they beat Everton just a few days before that.
“What can be changed by changing the manager? You’ve had stability for a number of years, you might as well have seen it through. That would have been the honourable thing to do, to let Sean Dyche stay in the role until the end of the season.
“You don’t want to lose the group. This group, this team, this club has always been about this manager, in this long period he’s been there, and these players are particularly loyal.
“There has been a lack of investment over the number of years at the club, which was affecting the way he was trying to plan for the future and it has not worked. I think he’s been let down.
“But I don’t see Burnley staying up now. I think this decision has let Everton off the hook.”
