Burnley face up to another cruel twist of the doom loop

For Burnley’s American owners, brought up on the closed system of the US franchise model, this must feel like some cruel and unusual punishment. The club were already getting their post forwarded to the abyss. Now, with a 2-0 defeat by fellow strugglers West Ham, they have put a first-class stamp on it.

Soon, at least, they will be back in the land of plenty. Relegation would be Burnley’s fifth consecutive seesaw between the top two divisions of English football. That is not a record (Germany’s BFC Südring did 10 in a row in the 1950s), but there is a particular intensity to the Burnley way of doing things. Their points totals over the past four seasons are 35, 101, 24 and 100. They will be lucky to get to 24 this year.

You could sense the inevitable in the yank of Marcus Edwards’ shirt in the 41st minute. It was as if El Hadji Malik Diouf wanted to say: “Enough now, Burnley, back to the Championship you go.” An hour or so later, the game was lost, making it 16 league matches without a victory.

There remains a decent possibility that West Ham will go down with them, for all their superiority under 3pm floodlights and Lancashire clouds dyed with dishwater. This would be a disaster for a club who have only twice been relegated from the Premier League and never in their hulk of a stadium.

Burnley’s Turf Moor is quaint. For more than a century it has served cups of Bene and Hot, brought over by soldiers posted to France in the First World War. It is still nestled among the terraced houses built for mill workers. The ground reads as charming in the Premier League and at home in the Championship. West Ham’s London Stadium, by contrast, is a cold marvel of the 21st century. It is an aberration to imagine it becoming a feature of the Championship, which has so far resisted the false prophets of the video assistant referee and bottomless financial capital. The London Stadium in the second tier will make every West Ham match look like a cup tie.

But perhaps it is too soon to prepare for this fate. Nottingham Forest are underpriced to go down, and are now only three points ahead of the Hammers in 18th. On today’s viewing, West Ham have plenty of life left in them.

Crysencio Summerville broke the deadlock in the 13th minute, running on to a Mateus Fernandes through-ball to dink it over the goalkeeper, scoring for his fifth game in a row. Shortly after, the digital advertising hoardings wished everyone in Turf Moor a happy year of the horse. For Burnley, the horse had bolted. By the 26th minute, it was 2-0 thanks to a fine cross from Diouf and a glancing header from Taty Castellanos. Burnley offered an attacking threat and forced a couple of good saves, but the Hammers soaked up the pressure and the scoreline was unchanged. It would be unfair to say Burnley were frit. They fought to the end. But by the time the whistle came, many fans had flit. Now 11 points from safety, Burnley’s season appears to be over.

Football fans are psychologically complicated. That becomes clear when you talk to supporters of yo-yo teams. You have to catch them away from the stands, nursing a pint in the Royal Dyche, or taking refuge in anonymity on a Reddit forum. The quiet refrain goes like this: “The winning runs, promotion day, the pitch invasion… that’s as good as it gets. The journey is better than the destination.” The next bit is whispered, so lean in close: “I actually prefer it in the Championship.”

You can hardly begrudge the fans who have this opinion. When you’re in the second tier of English football, status is little impediment to glory or excitement. Twenty different teams have won the Championship since 1992-1993, over which time only seven have won the Premier League. And when you are promoted to the top tier, you must do battle with economic gravity. Parachute payments empower relegated teams to get back to the Premier League quickly. But financial fair play rules, which link spending to club revenue, make it exceedingly difficult to stay there.

Of course, this season shows that promoted teams can make a fist of it. Against expectations, Sunderland and Leeds are both likely to survive. Sunderland, especially, are having a stellar time despite today’s defeat against Arsenal. Here’s a telling stat: Burnley finished 24 points above Sunderland in the Championship last season. They are currently 21 points behind them with 13 games left.

But Sunderland are an exception to the rule. You have to have a season like the one the Black Cats are having to enjoy more good days than bad in the Premier League. What would it mean then, really, for the Clarets to somehow stay up? There’d be a pitch invasion. The manager Scott Parker would puff his chest out and talk at rapid clip about how he always believed in his boys. But in a few short months they’d probably find themselves clinging to the rock face again. This is why you can sympathise with those who have no interest in the second yo of the yo-yo. Those people do exist. “Cut the rope,” they say. “Let us go.”

If only there was a way to feast in the Championship without risking famine the next season. It’s not enough to finish in the top six and fall short in the play-offs, because that brings an agony of its own, and by the time you get down to seventh it’s hardly a banquet. Of course, Sunderland show you can have your cake and eat it. You can break the spell. But it’s hard not to get swept away by the whirligig of the Big Six, constrained by the straitjacket of financial rules. It’s even harder for Burnley, set against the watchful eye of Pendle Hill. There are witches there, you know, and a mist that floats this way. The magic is strong up there.

Photograph by Kate McShane/Getty Images