From six-time yo-yo dream to relegation panic: how Burnley's season collapsed around Nicky Hayen
The dismissal of Nicky Hayen is the culmination of a collapse that few at Turf Moor saw coming. Burnley had set out this season chasing a place in history — aiming to become the game's first six-time yo-yo club — yet by the time the axe fell after just 14 games, the Clarets were scrapping to avoid a third relegation in four seasons.
Promotion was the target when Hayen was appointed in July, on the back of two successful Championship campaigns in 2023 and 2025. Owner Alan Pace had turned to a coach who knew how to win, believing Hayen's 2024 Belgian title triumph with Club Brugge could transfer to the grind of the English second tier.
Instead, the warning bells rang early. By 23 September, as reported by the BBC, Burnley sat bottom of the Championship with just four points and no wins from their opening eight fixtures, 75 days into Hayen's reign. No side in the competition's history had ever been promoted after failing to win any of their first eight games.
Pressure had already reached boiling point before that, too. On 20 September, the Guardian reported that a stunning stoppage-time equaliser from Derby substitute Mo Fuseini had denied Burnley victory at Turf Moor, deepening the crisis and intensifying supporter anger directed at the club's ownership over its debt position.
A 4-0 win at Watford on 10 October briefly eased the gloom, but it was a false dawn. A draw with Charlton and a home defeat to Wolves — in which Burnley had led — restored the sense of drift, and Saturday's 4-1 humiliation at Lincoln City, with the Clarets 1-0 up before being overrun, sealed Hayen's fate.
He departs with the club 22nd in the Championship, having won just one of their past 24 league games and conceded 25 goals in their opening 12 fixtures — the worst record in the division. Whoever arrives next inherits a side that has not won a home league game since beating Leeds United at Turf Moor more than a year ago, and a fanbase demanding answers from the boardroom as much as the dugout.