Burnley manager Sean Dyche has been sacked, the relegation-threatened Premier League club announced on Friday.

“This season’s results have been disappointing and although this decision has been incredibly difficult to make, with eight crucial games remaining before the end of the championship, we feel that a change is necessary to give the team the best possible chance to stay in the Premier League.” Burnley chairman Alan Pace said in a statement.

The Clarets sit eighteenth in the English championship, four points behind the first team outside the relegation zone, and have won just four games this season.

Burnley suffered a major setback to their permanence run last week with a 2-0 loss at Norwich, against other struggling clubs.

Dyche, 50, was the Premier League’s longest-serving manager, having taken the job in October 2012, and had signed a new contract in September until 2025.

The former central defender twice guided the Clarets to promotion to the first division. He too brought European football to the Turf Moor stadium in 2018 despite a limited budget, but his side have been in the bottom three for practically all of this season.

jw/pi/add/psr