Vincent Kompany is also chasing the dream of the treble with Bayern Munich this season. At his previous managerial posting, however, things are in turmoil. The absolute worst-case scenario is looming.Not so long ago, fans and pundits were rubbing their eyes when sporting director Max Eberl pulled Vincent Kompany out of the hat as Bayern Munich coach after an unprecedented stream of rejections. The Belgian was still almost a blank slate as a coach and had gone down from the Premier League with Burnley only a few weeks earlier without so much as a whimper.In Munich, Kompany quickly silenced his critics after arriving in summer 2024 with breathtaking football and plenty of charm. In the north-west of England, though, the picture has changed drastically.Burnley remain the definition of a yo-yo club. But a little more than two years after the former world-class centre-back left, the club looks like a pile of rubble, on the pitch and financially.What happened to Burnley after Vincent Kompany’s departureFirst, the background. After relegation in 2022, Kompany led Burnley straight back into the Premier League in emphatic fashion with a fabulous and historic haul of 101 points. But the current Bayern coach could not stop them dropping straight back into the second tier. That was a circumstance that sent predecessor Sean Dyche into a fury at the time.Next matchesFCABundesliga10 Oct 202621:30FCBWATChampionship10 Oct 202622:00BURThe now 55-year-old, who won promotion twice with Burnley and kept the club in the English top flight for five seasons, raged: “I think they got 24 points with him. They spent 150 million euros for that – and he got the job at Bayern. I don’t know how that works! I wish that had been me. I wish I’d left the club with 150 million euros of debt and then got the job at Bayern. Anyway, life takes its interesting turns.”Among others, Burnley signed Zeki Amdouni for the club-record fee of 18.6 million euros. It made no difference. With just 24 points, five wins and 24 defeats, and a goal difference of 41:78, they finished 19th. After immediate promotion back up, Kompany’s successor Scott Parker was also unable, in Kompany’s defence, to prevent another relegation. Back in the second-tier Championship, Kompany’s compatriot Nicky Hayen was supposed to press the lift button upwards this season.Getty ImagesBurnley currently the worst team in the ChampionshipInstead, the lift at Burnley is heading even further down, into sporting no man’s land. The reality is brutal: bottom of the table, not in the promotion places. After eight matchdays, the club have four meagre points and are the only winless team in the league. Having conceded 17 goals, Burnley also own the worst defence in the division alongside Norwich City.Former Karlsruhe goalkeeper Max Weiß, promoted to number one before the season, has already lost his regular place. Captain Kyle Walker was recently dropped to the bench. Yet neither move brought the hoped-for breakthrough in the clash with Derby County before the XXL international break.That 1-1 draw was already the fourth stalemate of the still-young campaign. The stated aim of promotion is slipping further and further away. No club in Championship history has ever won promotion after failing to record a single victory from their first eight matches. “That’s hard to take,” Hayen said after the final whistle: “It’s frustrating.” Hayen also spoke openly about the possibility of his dismissal. He had only taken over the team 29 days before their first competitive match after quite successful years at Club Brugge, winning the league title and the cup. “I know how football works, but I’ve also said there are many reasons, and you can take that into account or not,” he told BBC Radio Lancashire, adding: “I know I’m responsible for it and if they decide it’s not good enough, then we’ll see.”For the time being, Hayen will be allowed to continue despite the very likely absence of the yo-yo effect this time. But the alarm bells are ringing when it comes to the balance sheet too. The BBC recently came up with a fitting metaphor for the situation: “The problem with yo-yos is that you don’t get them back when the momentum reverses and the string goes slack.” The word “slack” also fits the club’s financial leverage. Burnley are a long way from being able to fix their sporting malaise with high-profile transfers in winter.Huge mountain of debt! Why Burnley are finished financiallyAlan Pace carries most of the blame for that. The American took over Burnley in December 2020 through his investment company ALK Capital. But he financed the purchase with loans. As a result, a large part of the financial burden sits with the club itself and, after relegation, it is enormous because revenues are so much lower than in the Premier League. According to information from the Guardian, the current mountain of debt amounts to the equivalent of more than 165 million euros. As part of the takeover, the company is also still said to owe the club 94 million euros.Little wonder, then, that fans aimed vicious chants at Pace during recent home games. Managing director James Holroyd, formerly at Adidas and Manchester United, has already pulled the plug and announced his resignation after just 15 months in the job. Alongside the unrest around the leadership’s failures in financial planning, Burnley are dependent on transfer income. In total, the club sold players worth around 124 million euros in the summer, including Maxime Esteve to RB Leipzig, while new signings arrived for the comparatively low sum in England of just over 53 million euros.Getty ImagesTransfer of Jamie Vardy no more than a sticking plasterThe imbalance in Burnley’s squad is clear enough up front. The 20 million euro sale of Zian Flemming to Ipswich Town, who still scored 11 goals last season despite the relegation and had already struck twice in the Championship after two matchdays, was not reinvested. Instead, 19-year-old Dastan Satpaev arrived on loan from Chelsea and the previously clubless Jamie Vardy shortly before the transfer window closed.Those glorious days for the legendary goalscorer, who once sensationally fired Leicester City to the title, are long gone. The signing is, at best, a sticking plaster. So far, the 39-year-old veteran has made only two brief substitute appearances without scoring.One statistic offers the only real source of hope for survival: seven of the previous 10 teams still without a win after eight matches ultimately stayed up. Relegation to the third-tier League One would probably be a worst-case scenario for Burnley in every respect.Burnley in last place: Current Championship tablePositionClubMatchesGoalsPoints1Swansea City813:6172West Ham United822:11153FC Middlesbrough816:12154Wolverhampton Wanderers715:10145West Bromwich Albion810:8146Queens Park Rangers810:7137Stoke City813:12138Bristol City811:12139Charlton Athletic87:101210Birmingham City812:111111FC Millwall815:151112Lincoln City87:81113FC Southampton819:101014AFC Wrexham89:121015Bolton Wanderers811:151016Blackburn Rovers812:12917Norwich City816:17918Sheffield United89:11919FC Portsmouth79:10820FC Watford87:10821Cardiff City810:12722Derby County87:14523Preston North End88:15424Burnley89:174
