Burnley's Decline: From Premier League Hope to Championship Struggles
Twelve months ago, Turf Moor dared to dream.
On a wild Sunday at Molineux, Lyle Foster crashed in a 95th‑minute winner as Burnley edged Wolves 3-2, pulling five points clear of the Premier League relegation zone. It felt like a turning point. Back-to-back top-flight wins for the first time in more than three years, a young side finding its feet, a club that had made a habit of falling and rising seemingly ready to steady itself.
Fast forward a year and the mood could hardly be darker.
Burnley are back in the Championship, marooned in the bottom three, and staring down the barrel of an unwanted English record for the longest run without a home win. The optimism has drained away, replaced by a toxic mix of anger, anxiety and apathy. The club that once turned Turf Moor into a fortress now can’t buy a victory there.
And around it all, a storm swirls over the ownership of Alan Pace and ALK Capital.
From yo-yo to freefall
Since 2010, Burnley have been one of English football’s great yo-yo stories. Five promotions to the Premier League. Five relegations. On three of those occasions, they bounced straight back up. That resilience became part of the club’s identity.
This time, the spring looks broken.
The slide began last season. Scott Parker’s reign fizzled out towards the end of the campaign, and Burnley drifted out of the top flight with barely a fight. The board then waited until less than a month before the new Championship season to appoint Nicky Hayen, after a move for Wales boss Craig Bellamy collapsed.
Hayen walked into a job already on fire.
“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.”
Hayen tried to reshape the side in a hurry. Eleven new players arrived in a frantic summer, 10 went out. On paper, it was a reset. On the pitch, it has looked like chaos.
“What has followed has been nothing short of a horror show in the lead up to Halloween.”
Jobi McAnuff, the former Watford and Reading midfielder and now an EFL pundit, didn’t hold back on the BBC’s 72+ podcast.
“I look at that squad and it's been scattergun,” he said. “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.”
Redmond’s verdict on expectations was blunt.
“At the very minimum we should be battling it out at the top end of the table,” he said. “This squad has proved it's not good enough for that so far this season but one coming down from the Premier League should be able to compete, and if it can't then something has gone seriously wrong.”
Turf Moor: from fortress to burden
For years, Burnley’s home form underpinned everything. Turf Moor was awkward, hostile, unforgiving. Before this season, they had lost just one of their previous 46 Championship games there, winning 30. Opponents knew they were in for a long afternoon.
Now the place feels haunted.
Fail to beat Portsmouth on 31 October and Burnley will set a new English record for the longest time without a home win, surpassing Sheffield Wednesday’s grim run of 376 days between April 2025 and May 2026.
“Most of this run came in the Premier League, where they didn't look like winning at home or away for most of the season,” said BBC Radio Lancashire commentator Scott Read. “It's a knock-on from that, but they should have won at home this season. They've let leads slip against Bristol City, Derby, Charlton and Wolves.”
The numbers are stark. The last home league win came on 18 October 2025, a 2-0 victory over Leeds. Since then: 21 league games at Turf Moor, 10 defeats, 11 draws, just 21 goals scored. Every visit feels like an ordeal.
The latest setback, another home loss to Wolves last Friday, ended in a chorus of boos.
“I can't blame the fans, they want the best for their team and if you have losses like this it is normal,” Hayen said. “You know when you are losing, the atmosphere changes into negativity and I can accept it as a reality.”
McAnuff sees a vicious circle taking hold.
“The scary thing for them is they've been in really good positions at home in the past four games,” he said. “They've had leads, conceded late and you can feel the energy, tension and nervousness around the stadium which is absolutely having an impact on those players.”
Turf Moor used to lift Burnley. Now it weighs them down.
A Halloween defeat to Portsmouth would be more than just a fright for Hayen. It might be decisive – if he even makes it to that game.
Ownership under fire
The anger doesn’t stop at the dugout.
Pace and ALK Capital completed their takeover in December 2020, replacing Mike Garlick and John Banaszkiewicz. The deal, financed by a £65m loan, raised eyebrows at the time. Relegation last season, the delay in appointing a new head coach and the shambolic start to this campaign have turned suspicion into open hostility.
“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,” Read said.
Hayen knew he was stepping into a volatile environment when he left Genk in Belgium’s top flight for his first job in English football. He insists he was under no illusions.
“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,” he said after the defeat by Wolves.
“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.”
The trouble is already here. Results are poor, performances brittle, and patience thin.
“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?” Redmond said.
Time running out
Burnley travel to Lincoln on Saturday with pressure bearing down from every direction. On the pitch, a squad that should be competing at the top end of the Championship is locked in a relegation fight. Off it, a fanbase that once prided itself on unity and defiance is splintering under the weight of debt, distrust and drift.
The club that used to bounce back now looks stuck in a slow, painful fall.
The next few weeks – Lincoln away, Portsmouth at home, that looming record – will not just shape a season. They may define what Burnley are going to be for years to come.
