Alan Pace emerges through gates at Turf Moor and is immediately asked for a selfie by four young Burnley fans lingering outside. The unfailingly polite chairman obliges and moves in for the photo. “People blamed you for us getting relegated,” says a teenager. Pace is visibly and audibly deflated and emits a gut-wrenching sigh as the group poses for the camera.
The innocent yet cutting exchange opens part two of Mission to Burnley, the latest fly-on-the-wall football documentary, which charts Burnley’s fall and rise under their American owner, ALK Capital. Pace insists he was reluctant to let the cameras in, and uncomfortable in front of them, but he and his fellow board members feature heavily in a four-parter that covers the sacking of Sean Dyche, relegation from the Premier League, Vincent Kompany’s appointment and Burnley’s Championship triumph.
It offers rare insight into the pressures on the owner of a close-knit club, financial and otherwise, along with their powerlessness when relegation strikes. Pace’s wife, Kristen, calls it the most stressful period of their marriage. Thankfully Mission to Burnley has a redeeming narrative arc with the club back in the Premier League at the first time of asking and launching the new season at home to Manchester City on Friday.
“To have people come up to the directors’ box on their way out and almost charge at the directors’ box, and yell and scream and tell you to F-off and go die, I don’t think people are really ready for that. I know I wasn’t,” says Pace of the hostility that accompanied relegation.
“Then walking down the street and people are waving at you with one of their five fingers. The hardest part was being with family when people were telling us to go home. This is home. I think that was probably harder for the family than for me, but we made the conscious effort when that happened to leave after a while because it wasn’t a good environment. It is way, way better when things are going well. People are very respectful and kind. I would have to say that a number of those same people have come up to us and apologised, which I would never have expected or asked for. That has been amazing.”
ALK’s takeover of Burnley in December 2020 was deeply personal for Pace. His father was a Mormon missionary who came to the north-west of England aged 19 and would later urge his son to follow suit.
The Burnley chairman, a Mormon along with other directors of ALK, recalls: “He said that, if you ever get the chance, you should live there and experience what is in the north-west. I remember that from when I was six or seven years old and all the different things that would come out about the UK. We had roast beef and yorkshire pudding pretty much every Sunday afternoon so the memories I have from him when he was alive was that this was a special part of the world and it left a big impression on him. He passed away several years ago, he didn’t know we did this, but I have met people who knew him as a 19-year-old boy when he was here and their stories have been fantastic.”
The same can be said of Burnley’s revival under Kompany. The club lost 16 players and signed 21 after relegation in 2022. Only four of the departures brought in a fee. The first parachute payment from the Premier League went on repaying debt incurred as part of ALK’s takeover. But fears about life in the Championship, and the financial impact, were forgotten as Kompany’s new-look Burnley swept to the title with 101 points, scoring more goals and conceding fewer than any other team. Turnover has been high again this summer, but Burnley’s commanding manager will not be making predictions about what lies ahead.
“The club has had a long history with good moments in the past and to put our names to one of those moments is something I feel privileged about,” says Kompany of last season’s success. “My goal every day is to see if we can do more, to see if we can keep progressing. I said it last year when we finished first – we are 21st in English football. So I would like to see how far up we can take the club. That’s something I am passionate about. And give people hope that we can still improve. Hope is a big, big thing in life.”
Kompany, who had players back in pre-season training as early as 5 June, says: “I believe we have players in the squad right now who one day will be the next Jack Grealish and maybe win trophies. But they are with us right now and we have a chance to make them better quicker. And if they get better quicker with us then maybe we might enjoy a little bit of a more prosperous time with them.
“That is my passion really, developing them and trying to develop them quicker than others would. I am not saying I will be able to but that is my goal. That is what I try to do every day, and then creating a team and a culture around that which allows us to have a foundation to build. I am not thinking about struggling, or not struggling, I am thinking about improving to the extent where we can have a bit of fun and win games our way.”
• Mission to Burnley launches at 10pm on Thursday on Sky documentaries and Now as a box set and weekly episodes.
