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29th Jul 2014

Premier League previews – Burnley

Can the Premier League's most unfancied side do a Crystal Palace?

Tony Cuddihy

Manager: Sean Dyche.

Last season: 2nd in the Championship – promoted behind Leicester.

Major signings: Michael Kightly (undisclosed, Stoke), Matt Gilks (free, Blackpool), Matt Taylor (free, West Ham), Marvin Sordell (undiscl, Bolton), Steven Reid (free, West Brom), Chris Baird (free, unattached), Lukas Jutkiewicz (£1.5m, Middlesbrough)

Players out: Nick Liversedge, Brian Stock, Keith Treacy (released), Joseph Mills (free, Oldham), David Edgar (free, Birmingham)

Expectations? Not great, but we’ve been surprised before.

Burnley will start the season as most pundits’ favourites for the drop. They don’t have the financial muscle of either Leicester or Queens Park Rangers and the signings they are making are divided between Championship plodder and Premier League squad filler. Names like Kightly, Gilks, Taylor and Sordell hardly scream Europa League contenders, or even mid-table safety, yet…

…look at Crystal Palace.

This time last year nobody gave Ian Holloway’s side a snowflake’s chance in hell of staying up, but once the boss had resigned and Tony Pulis had come in Palace were all but safe.

Fashioning a cohesive unit and making a whole far greater than the sum of his parts will be a huge test for Dyche, but in Danny Ings he has a young striker who could well be more Kevin Phillips than Danny Graham, and he may just fire them to safety.

Irish angle: Former Ireland midfielder Steven Reid joined from West Brom this summer, while Corkman Kevin Long will fight for a place in the centre of defence.

If they were a fictional character… they’d be Turtle from Entourage. A small-town background character made good – can Burnley cause a few upsets to stay at the top?

Where will they end up? Bottom half, but they might avoid relegation.