Relegation-threatened Burnley announced yesterday they had sacked long-serving manager Sean Dyche with eight games of the Premier League season remaining. The Clarets are 18th in the English top-flight four points adrift of safety after just four league wins all season.
The 50-year-old Dyche, who signed a new contract due to run until 2025 in September, had been the longest-serving manager of any club in the Premier League, having taken charge in October 2012. He twice led the Clarets to promotion from the Championship and brought European football to Turf Moor in 2018 despite a limited budget, but his side have been in the bottom three virtually all season and last week’s 2-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Norwich was a major setback in their survival bid.
ALK Capital group took over at Turf Moor in December 2020. Captain Ben Mee would be part of the coaching staff for Sunday’s trip to West Ham. Burnley have 24 points after 30 games, four behind Frank Lampard’s Everton, who are in 17th place.
Nagelsmann gets death
threats after Bayern’s exit
Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann said yesterday he had been subjected to online death threats after his team’s surprise Champions League exit to Villarreal this week. “I know I will always get criticism from all sides, that’s normal and I can deal with it. But with 450 death threats on Instagram, it’s not so easy,” said Nagelsmann ahead of Bayern’s Bundesliga trip to Arminia Bielefeld tomorrow. “If people want to kill me that’s one thing, but they also attack my own mother, who doesn’t even care about football,” he added.
Asked whether he had considered taking legal action, Nagelsmann suggested there were simply too many threats for that to be realistic. Nagelsmann is the second Bayern employee who has been faced with death threats this week.
The wife and son of sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic also revealed on Wednesday and Thursday that they had been subjected to threats in the wake of the Villarreal defeat, posting screenshots of private messages sent on Instagram.

Ricketts-led consortium withdraws bid to buy Chelsea
The Ricketts-led consortium announced yesterday it had withdrawn its bid to buy Premier League club Chelsea, which is being sold by owner Roman Abramovich. The Chicago Cubs owners and their partners opted not to submit a final bid for the Blues, with the consortium members understood to be unable to agree the final composition of their offer.
Cubs owners Tom and Laura Ricketts had partnered with US billionaires Ken Griffin and Dan Gilbert on a cash-only bid to buy the Blues. Final bids were due to be submitted to New York merchant bank the Raine Group on Thursday.