Burnley appoint Dyche
Burnley have appointed Sean Dyche as their new manager.
Dyche fills a vacancy created when Eddie Howe left the npower Championship club earlier this month to return to Bournemouth due to family reasons.
The 41-year-old has penned a two-and-a-half year contract on his first appointment since being controversially sacked as Watford manager this summer, following the Pozzo family's takeover at Vicarage Road.
Dyche led Watford to their highest Championship finish for four years in his first managerial appointment last term and returned to football as part of Stuart Pearce's England Under-21s coaching staff for September's Euro 2013 qualifier against Norway. He is joined at Turf Moor by assistant Ian Woan, who also served as his number two at Watford, and first-team coach Tony Loughlan.
Having recorded back-to-back wins in their first two games under caretaker boss Terry Pashley, Burnley went down 4-0 to leaders Cardiff at the weekend and lie 14th in the table ahead of Saturday's clash with Wolves.
Burnley co-chairmen John Banaszkiewicz and Mike Garlick welcomed Dyche to the club, proclaiming him as the "outstanding candidate" to replace Howe in a joint statement.
Speaking to Burnley's official website, www.burnleyfootballclub.com, Dyche claimed he had no hesitation in accepting the offer of a return to management at Championship level.
Having attended the Clarets' match at Cardiff over the weekend, the delay over confirming his appointment led to speculation that Dyche might have cold feet. But the former Chesterfield, Millwall and Watford centre-back insisted the delay was down to nothing more than contractual formalities.
"It feels fantastic to be invited to be the manager of a great club," said Dyche after taking training for the first time at Burnley's Gawthorpe training base along with Woan and Loughlan. "It didn't take me any time at all to accept the role, despite popular misconceptions."
He added: "I wasn't at home having the weekend to think about it. I decided instantly and we got on with things as quickly as we could, but things still need to be put into place contractually."
