After a banner with the slogan ‘White Lives Matter’ flew through the Etihad Stadium during their match against Manchester City, Sean Dyche ensures that the actions of a minority do not overshadow the work of Burnley in the community.
The club condemned the banner and promised if found to impose life bans on the perpetrators and Dyche said the message was contradictory to the party ‘s principles.
Dyche said: “As a club, all we can do is try to send out the right message and you know the amount of community work done here. What has been done in the city over the past five years has been nothing short of amazing in terms of mutual relations and the number of people impacted, and we don’t want it to be overshadowed by a few making an inappropriate comment.”
Burnley captain Ben Mee said after seeing the banner in post-match interviews he was “angry and embarrassed” and Dyche said his comments reflected the thoughts of the dressing room.
He said: “A lot of players were very emotional about it. I want to make it clear to the players, to be honest, they all have Twitter accounts so I said Ben was going to talk and I’m going to talk. Ben talked very well, as the man he is, very authentically. I played my part, as well as the chief executive and the chairman. We are united as a team. I can’t speak for everyone in the city, but I would like to think that this is seen as the behavior of a small number of people rather than the whole city and the club.”
In the meantime, Phil Bardsley has signed a new one-year deal, but Dyche has announced that Jeff Hendrick, Joe Hart, and Aaron Lennon have played their last matches for the club. Dyche was unable to appoint a full bench for Monday’s 5-0 defeat, with three players out injured and speculating about others whose contracts were up, but the manager dismissed the doubts he had expressed in pre-match interviews suggesting any broader problems behind the scenes.
“I had to chuckle because I heard someone say it is the first time Sean Dyche has questioned the board the other night. I think most boards would be happy if only every seven and a half years they got questioned,” he added.
