Burnley plunged into relegation battle and fan unrest after 12 months of decline
A year on from Lyle Foster’s 95th‑minute winner in a 3-2 victory at Wolves on 26 October 2025, Burnley have been relegated and now sit in the Championship’s bottom three amid rising disquiet aimed at owner Alan Pace and ALK Capital. The Clarets have not won a league game at home since 18 October 2025 and will set a new English record for the longest spell without a home league victory if they fail to beat Portsmouth on 31 October.
Burnley reached the Premier League in 2025 with 100 points, and since 2010 the club have secured promotion on five occasions but been relegated five times, recovering immediately on three of those previous occasions. Scott Parker left towards the end of last season and Nicky Hayen was appointed less than a month before the new Championship campaign after a move for Wales boss Craig Bellamy fell through. Hayen then oversaw a summer overhaul with a total of 11 new players arriving and 10 departing. "I think there is an element of sympathy among the fans for Hayen but two things can be true at the same time - you can sympathise and also think he's out of his depth," said Joe Redmond, creator and host of the Turfcast podcast. "He was brought in after pre-season had started, has been forced to work with some coaches left over from Scott Parker and had his main striker, Zian Flemming, sold from under him on transfer deadline day. These are clearly errors from the hierarchy but at the same time he clearly isn't getting the best out of this squad - I'm sure there's a decent manager in there somewhere but I don't think he's what we need right now."
"I look at that squad and it's been scattergun," former Watford and Reading midfielder Jobi McAnuff told the BBC's podcast 72+. "They bounce up [to the Premier League], come down, go up, come down and they haven't handled that well enough - we all knew Flemming was going but you leave it right until the end of the window and you're killing the manager. Then you get [Jamie] Vardy in. I love him but he's 39 and you cannot expect him to be your main man all season, he's going to come on and chip in and be great around the dressing room."
Home form, long a foundation of Burnley's success, has collapsed: before this season they had lost only one of their previous 46 Championship games at Turf Moor, winning 30 of them, but their last home league victory remains a 2-0 win over Leeds on 18 October 2025, in which Loum Tchaouna scored Burnley's second goal. Since that result the Clarets have played 21 league games, losing 10 and drawing 11, and have scored 21 goals in total. The latest home defeat, by Wolves last Friday, was met with boos at full‑time.
Boss Nicky Hayen addressed the crowd after that defeat, saying: "I can't blame the fans, they want the best for their team and if you have losses like this it is normal. You know when you are losing, the atmosphere changes into negativity and I can accept it as a reality." Former players and pundits have pointed to late concessions at Turf Moor as a recurring problem, with Jobi McAnuff adding that conceding late has affected the energy and tension inside the stadium.
Supporter anger has also focused on the club's ownership: Alan Pace and his investment group ALK Capital completed their takeover in December 2020 using a loan of £65m to finance the purchase, and anti-Alan Pace chants and banners were on display during the recent home game. "Anti-Alan Pace chants and banners were on display during the last home game but there is no indication they [ALK] are looking to sell and even if he wanted to, with the amount of debt the club is carrying it would be a pretty hard sell," BBC Radio Lancashire's Scott Read said.
Hayen left his role in charge of Genk to take the Burnley job and, after the Wolves defeat, said: "I was aware [of the size of the job] because there were a lot of people who said I came into a really difficult situation. Even with the best players who left and the structure in the club I was aware of it. Our expectations are much higher but we are working really hard and 100% we can change it, but if we change everything into negativity in our support then we will be in trouble." Podcast creator Redmond warned: "It's going wrong absolutely everywhere at Turf Moor and the only way it changes is with changes in personnel, whether they be in the dugout, boardroom or hopefully both - it remains to be seen, but surely if we lose to Lincoln something has got to change?"
A Halloween defeat at home to Portsmouth could extend the club's miserable run, and Burnley's visit to the Imps on Saturday (15:00 BST) comes with time for those in charge seemingly running out, as is the patience of those paying through the gates.