Story byBBCTue, December 16, 2025 at 8:50 AM UTC·1 min readThe Observer's football correspondent Rory Smith has observed a pattern in Burnley's attempts to establish a foothold in the Premier League. After winning the 2022-23 Championship by a 10-point margin, Vincent Kompany's Burnley failed to find their feet in the top tier - and now, we're seeing history repeat itself, Smith says. AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"[Appointing] Parker was a deliberate response to that [naive style under Kompany], to say 'that will not keep us up'," Smith told BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club."The risk they were taking is: 'We've tried the fun way, and we went down. So let's try the non-fun way.'"Parker has done the exactly the same job as Vincent Kompany - he got Burnley promoted, and now they're not quite good enough to stay up."Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer and listen on BBC Sounds[BBC][BBC].
