“Lookie-likies make the world go around.”
Burnley might play supposedly boring football, with their unflinchingly solid two banks of four, annoyingly effective big-man-big-man combination up front and a goalkeeper with limbs wider than the goal frame, but Sean Dyche is not a boring man.
Sure, he will often bemoan a supposed element of injustice in a game of football his team loses – who doesn’t? – but every now and then the gravelly toned manager will provide a unique moment of comedy. Remember worm-gate? When he had to deny that he used to eat worms, clarifying that he actually only used to pretend to chew them? For Banter. And then it provoked a whole discourse online about whether that was any better, and a deep dive listicle ranking of every Premier League manager based on how likely they are to eat a worm? What a time 2018 was.
Then there was the time he raved about seeing Post Malone at Reading Festival. Not the sort of music taste you expect of a Kettering born man in his 40s. But that’s Dyche. Tactical pragmatist by day, hip-hop head by night.
And his press conference on Tuesday ahead of the Clarets’ clash with Manchester City gave us yet another gem – many gems in fact – as he proceeded to rave about playing ‘lookie-likeys’ on holiday with his family.
The five glorious minutes began with a journalist telling Dyche he looks like Mick Hucknall.
Dyche then explained how much he preferred left field questions rather than the usual ‘any injuries, Sean?’ type of guff journalists are obliged to ask.
He then went on a passionate rant about how much fun playing ‘lookie-likies’ is (does anyone actually call it that?)
“Has anyone seen the kids’ film, Up?” he asked the virtual room.
“You know the little old man with the glasses on? I swear to you, we were playing away at Sunderland and a live human version of the man in Up was there.”
“They were crying,” Dyche said of his players when he pointed out the likeness of the man in question to his squad.
“It’s the best lookie-likey I’ve ever had.”
The greatest #PremierLeague press conference of all time! 😂
Burnley's Sean Dyche went OFF THE RAILS in this chat with journalists ahead of tomorrow morning's match with Man City! 🤣#OptusSport #PL #BURMCI pic.twitter.com/7MWvK09nAx
— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) February 3, 2021
A BBC journalist then apologised, as he had to ask him an inane question. But Dyche wasn’t going to let the fun stop there. Spotting a cat in the background of the journalist’s zoom call, they joked that the Burnley manager looked like the animal.
It’s a compelling five minutes of fun, and offers much more insight into Dyche’s personality than any chat about which central midfield partnership he will field in a match Burnley are almost certainly going to lose.
