SEAN Dyche is a managerial incompetent who is embarrassingly out of his depth and should resign or be sacked immediately before he takes us down to League One.

Well, at least that’s what the more excitable posters on Burnley-related message-boards would have had you believe, in the immediate aftermath of the 1-0 defeat to Leeds United at Elland Road seven nights ago.

Granted, that performance was dire, the loss highlighting the stark fact that the Clarets had won just twice in 15 games.

The result meant that the club had become involved on the periphery of the relegation scrap: but calling for the manager’s head after just 169 days in the job? Really? I mean, really?

That’s not to say that all has been rosy on Dyche’s watch.

Far from it.

A return of 13 points in three months is dismal, the football played is frequently so mind-numbingly dull that it makes Steve Cotterill’s take on the game look expansive.

The slow slide down the Championship table since flirting with the play-offs in mid-January has been painful to witness.

And that’s without making mention of the manager’s post-match comments which leave many fans cold.

However, in Dyche’s defence there are some mitigating circumstances.

The first thing to consider is what he inherited when he arrived, which was a team that attacked like Brazil but defended like San Marino.

The current crop of Clarets may not exactly be emulating Cliff Britton’s ‘Iron Curtain’ side of 1946/47, but at least they look like getting through 90 minutes without shipping three or four goals – which wasn’t the case under Eddie Howe.

Another point worth making is that Dyche can only work with the squad at his disposal, which, with all due respect, is hardly stellar.

Austin and Trippier aside, does anyone foresee a summer bidding war for any Turf Moor ‘stars’? Didn’t think so.

Put plainly, Howe didn’t spend astutely.

Keith Treacy, George Porter, Dane Richards – Jose Mourinho would struggle to get a tune from such mediocrity.

No, the time to assess Sean Dyche’s managerial competence will be at Christmas when he has the opportunity to bring in his own players and get them playing as he would like.

Alternatively, the club could simply follow the approach of a certain club just down the road and bin Dyche and any successors at the first hint of trouble.

But last time I looked, that experiment didn’t appear to be working out too well.