The Enchanted Burnley
Barring a miracle of inexplicable proportions, Burnley will be playing the 2024/2025 season in the second tier of English football. Anyway, miracles are meant to be inexplicable and our incredible ability to hold on to hope in the face of raging adversity is one of the things that makes us human.
So, to avoid wasting my time spewing gibberish, let's cut to the chase: Burnley will relegate. Simple!
Does that bother me? Not really, except for the fact that we'll be losing the only coloured manager in EPL. That reality is what makes my next question all the more confusing.
Why hasn't Vincent Kompany got sacked?
Maybe the owners of Burnley are looking at fellow relegation certainties Sheffield United who brought back Chris Wilder only to have results get worse. Or, maybe they are just so enchanted by the pattern of football Mr. Kompany plays that they'd rather have their team relegated than lose the man whose pattern of play brought them so much joy. Their choice, their problem.
Though bringing in new managers hasn't always helped steer clubs off relegation, there is a reason why some managers are beautifully christened "relegation specialists."
Are Burnley owners looking at Luton and thinking maybe, just maybe they may enjoy an upturn in form to escape relegation? Well, that's hanging a lot of investment on that old, wily nuisance called hope. And I guess I once read where one popular figure said, "Hope is not an investment strategy."
Unfortunately, Burnley have remained too calm for my liking. They are sleepwalking into relegation and they are comfortable with that. I really admire their calmness. How I wish Man United fans will be as calm as Burnley's.
And as for Man United, I guess I've got so used to the Jekyll and Hyde performance that results never really surprises me anymore. They've mastered the art of winning ugly and losing dishearteningly. Can't even remember the last time Man United lost a match and I felt like, "No, we deserve to win that." Every loss is a proper, deserved loss. The wins? They are more like unexpected miracles.
Well, I'm no longer pained by the results or performances. I'm just frustrated Ten Hag used injury as an excuse for his loss to a team that hasn't won an away match since August. For Christ's sake, an injury-ravaged Liverpool dispatched a very hungry Brentford. Where there is a will, there has got to be a way.
I'd rather stop here because I'm already getting too philosophical for my liking.
