CLARETS chairman Mike Garlick is one of a rare breed in modern Premier League circles - a fan of the club that he now controls.

Garlick is Burnley born and bred and stood on the terraces at Turf Moor before moving onto the board and into the comfy seats.

Now he pulls the purse strings as chairman so he was in a unique position this season, trying to enjoy a memorable campaign as Burnley secured top flight survival for the first time in over 40 years while trying to keep the blood pressure down as a second season of Premier League riches honed into view.

Garlick managed to enjoy it more often than not this season, and admits the suffering is all part of the game and striving for success, something the Clarets achieved this year.

“I enjoy it most of the time but not all of the time," he said. "It's like anything in life, sport or your career, if you want success you've got to go through a bit of pain to get it.

"There's nice moments, tough moments, hard moments and as long as the nice moments outnumber the tough moments we take that.

"I think it's third time lucky after the disappointments in 2009-10 and 2014-15. So to go one step further this time and do it in the way we did at home, in front of all the fans, that's where I guess we got the real success. I think that's been fantastic for everyone – board, players, manager and most important Burnley the town and the fans."

Garlick celebrated 10 years on the board this season and next month marks five years since he became co-chairman, so he has seen the club's rise in that time and those previous disappointments of just failing to secure Premier League survival.

And he felt early on in the 2016/17 season that the outcome was going to be a different one this time around.

"I'm not allowed to gamble on football but if I was a betting man I'd have backed us to stay up," he said.

"That's a combination of the team strengthening we did in the summer but also everyone from the last stint in the Premier League, the existing players and the management team also still here, but also wiser and more experienced, being in the Premier League before, who knew that little bit extra to get us across the line."

There have been many memorable moments for Burnley this season, from that first win of the season against Liverpool at Turf Moor to the last win of the campaign at Crystal Palace which broke the Clarets' away day hoodoo.

It was Burnley's form at Turf Moor that laid the foundations for their Premier League survival, winning 10 Premier League games at home, and Garlick was pleased to see so much success in front of the home fans, although he admits it hasn't all been plain sailing this season.

"There's a few I think," the Clarets chairman said when asked for his moment of the season.

"Particularly the Palace game, seeing us win their 2-0 and knowing after that result it would take quite a bizarre sequence of results not to see us survive. I think that was one of the most satisfying moments.

"If you look at the season, as everyone knows, we were out of the bottom three for 98 per cent of the time. To achieve that overall and to write off a lot of journalists who definitely had us as going down in August. I know we hadn't signed many players at that stage but the players we did get in helped us get over the line. To prove a few people wrong is pretty satisfying as well.

"We'll forget about the Lincoln game (in the FA Cup), that will be erased from Turf Moor history I think. I've had a word with the club historian and he's going to erase it from the records! Looking back you won't be able to see anything!

"Seriously, I think to do it the way we did at home makes it all the more special for everyone at the club."

Having achieved survival this season the task for Burnley now is to back it up in 2017/18. Garlick is aware another season of just staying in the Premier League will be marked as a success and he mentions West Brom, among others, as a club the Clarets must seek to emulate as they aspire to become a regular fixture in the top flight.

"West Brom are certainly a club we look to model off," he said. "Southampton, especially, apart from initial investment five or six years ago they’re fairly self sustaining. There isn’t an owner chucking money in every year.

"It’s been the same at West Brom, and at Swansea. At Stoke, there’s billionaires behind the club but they want it to be self sustaining."

Part of Burnley's plans to move forward is improvements to the academy, as they await the results of an Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) audit which will hopefully elevate them to Category Two status and a competitive games programme for the development squad.

Garlick knows that an area the Clarets have been weak in recently is development of home grown stars, and it is something the club is keen to put right in the coming years.

"It's vital we achieve category two status and vital we start to churn out our own players, which we haven't done, if we're totally honest, for a long time," the Turf chairman said.

"But the standard we need now, if they're going to break through, is a lot higher, and it's not going to be quick.

"You're looking at five, six years to get to that sort of possibility on a regular basis, it's not going to happen in the next year or two."