LONDON: Burnley manager Vincent Kompany (pix) was unhappy at being asked about the club’s finances before Saturday’s key clash with Premier League relegation rivals Everton.
The Clarets have announced losses of £27.9 million ($35.3 million, 32.5 million euros) for the year ending July 31, 2023, in their latest accounts following relegation at the end of the 2021/22 season.
Burnley are currently six points from safety with seven games to play and a second relegation in three years would undoubtedly harm the northwest club’s finances.
Kompany when questioned what the club’s losses would mean from a football perspective told reporters: “You’re asking me this — it’s a three-game week and in 48 hours we’ve got one of the most important games of the season.
“What benefit is that to me to start talking to you about the accounts of the club?
“The only thing I can tell you is, do we look worried, like we’ve lost control and calmness? We don’t.
“Let me focus on the Everton game right now, that’s what matters.”
Burnley may be second-bottom in the league but they are unbeaten in their last four matches and keen to close the gap to Everton, three places above and seven points better off than the Clarets.
Kompany, who guided Burnley straight back to the Premier League in his first season in charge, was in no mood to talk about what relegation might mean for the club’s medium and long-term future.
“We’re not going to talk about that right now,“ the former Manchester City and Belgium star said. “I don’t know what to say, I don’t think about it right now.
“I’ve told you many times since January, those are the discussions we have mid-season and the beginning of the season, not when we have seven games left and still everything to play for.
“The only thing I’ll try to convey as a message is it’s a scenario the club has known in the past and it’s a club that hasn’t panicked in those moments. So why all of a sudden should we? Do we have to portray a crisis just because that’s what you’re supposed to look like?
He added: “It’s a club that’s been there before in every situation – staying up, going down — and it’s a club that always does the right thing in those moments and that won’t change.”
Right-back Lorenz Assignon is in contention for this weekend’s trip to Goodison Park after missing the 1-1 midweek draw with Wolves through suspension.
Burnley were also without six injured players on Tuesday and Kompany said Aaron Ramsey, Luca Koleosho, Nathan Redmond, Ameen Al-Dakhil, Jordan Beyer and Han-Noah Massengo were all being assessed.
