Head coach Nicky Hayen has been sacked after just 14 games in charge at Burnley following a poor start to the season.

Hayen’s final match was Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Lincoln City, as the hosts came back from 1-0 down to emphatically condemn the Clarets to a sixth defeat of the campaign and leave them 22nd in the Championship.

Belgian Hayen was only appointed on 10 July to succeed Scott Parker, who left at the end of April days after the Clarets’ relegation from the Premier League was confirmed.

Burnley announced the news with a short two-sentence statement within two hours of their defeat at the ProAmpac Stadium.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Hayen had said: “I’m not going to lose my energy because this is something out of my hands” with reference to his future.

Hayen won the Belgian title with Club Brugge in 2024 and was brought in by owner Alan Pace to oversee a promotion bid, with the Clarets having gone up in their last two Championship campaigns in 2023 and 2025.

But after a promising draw with West Ham on the opening weekend, their season has nosedived and the club are without a win at home in the league since beating Leeds United at Turf Moor in the Premier League over a year ago.

The Clarets earned a first win of the season in style earlier this month as they returned from the extended international break to beat struggling Watford 4-0 but then drew against Charlton and lost to Wolves, scoring first in both matches.

Saturday’s defeat to the Imps also means they have won just one of the past 24 league games and have conceded 25 goals from their opening 12 Championship games – the worst record in the division.

Following the game, Burnley’s Wales full-back Connor Roberts said performances had not been good enough for “98% of the season”.

He told BBC Radio Lancashire prior to the news of Hayen’s departure: “We know it’s not good enough – we know the fans deserve a million times more, so we have to get on with it now and see if we can do better in the next game.”

After turning to Vincent Kompany and Scott Parker to guide them through their past two Championship seasons, Hayen’s appointment was left-field in the sense he had never worked in the English game.

In addition, it has been pointed out that his success at Club Brugge, where a Belgian title win was key in getting him the Burnley job, came about almost by accident as he only stepped in as caretaker and hadn’t been viewed as leading management material even inside the club.

The loss at Lincoln was yet another desperate day in a season that has delivered just one win and leaves the Clarets deep in the relegation mire.

If there is one advantage, it is that new technical director Diego Lopez will be able to play a key role in finding a successor once the arrival of the former Genoa sporting director is confirmed, which should provide alignment within the football set-up.

The Clarets are in the sixth season of a yo-yo existence, bouncing between Premier League relegation and Championship promotion.

It has never been entirely clear what would happen if the Clarets failed to regain their top-flight status at the first attempt, given ALK Capital took control at Turf Moor through a Glazer-style leveraged takeover in 2020, with a £65m loan from investment company MSD.

That loan has been refinanced, but in their latest accounts to July 2025, Burnley’s gross financial debt had increased by £30m to £142m, including outstanding transfer fees.

While Burnley are guaranteed Premier League parachute payments for a further two seasons after this one, chairman Alan Pace would evidently prefer not to use them. Burnley’s financial uncertainty is not helped by Everton’s appeal against a £35m compensation award to Burnley for breaching profit and sustainability rules in 2021-22.