A “PATH to growth” and passionate fans were two key factors in ALK Capital earmarking Burnley as the club they wanted to invest in.

The American firm today completed a £200million takeover - the first time in the Clarets’ history that the club has not been owned by a local businessman and Burnley fan.

But despite having no previous connections to the club, new chairman Alan Pace says he - and ALK as a whole - are relishing being part of “the Claret family”.

"We are very excited to begin this new journey with the Claret family,” he said.

“This is something we've been looking at getting involved with for a very long time and so this is the culmination of a lot of effort on our part and we're very excited.

"I'm extremely excited that it's finally come to fruition. It's taken us a lot longer than we would have liked, we would have liked to have been here a lot sooner, but we're happy that this is the right moment for us to get involved.

"We've spent a lot of time looking at football clubs and what attracted us specifically to Burnley was the passion of the fans, the quality of the club, the way it had been managed, the longevity of the coaching staff and the ability for us to see a path to growth.”

And Pace reassured fans that the new owners have a long-term vision for the club.

"We wouldn't do anything that's not on a long-term basis. This is not a short, buy-to-flip, opportunity. This is very much something we have a passion for ourselves and we are looking forward to the opportunity to be involved for years to come. This is something we're excited about.”

And although they were unable to have communication with Sean Dyche before the takeover was complete, leaving the Clarets boss in the dark due to a lack of dialogue with outgoing chairman Mike Garlick, Pace insists he and the new-look board - which includes Garlick and former co-chairman John Banaszkiewicz - are looking forward to working with the long-serving Burnley manager, and backing him in the transfer market.

"We have been very big fans of Sean Dyche for some time. The longevity and stability of the management side is something that has been very impactful from our perspective along with the playing style and the ability to perform at the level they have. We're very big fans of Sean's,” said Pace.

"We're very prepared to come in and support Sean and the management team. We need time to get in and understand what their needs are, what we're planning for and what the decisions were that they've taken so far and where they desire to go. We're fully prepared to back the manager.

"I'm looking to take a very active role on a daily basis, myself, my family and some of my partners will be moving to the local area and we're very excited to be engaged more regularly than some would expect.

"It's the number one league in the world in the number one sport. You attract investors that would want to see that continue to grow.”

He added: “This pandemic has been a concern for everyone, myself included. I've been in lockdown twice now and it's been challenging. I can fully relate to not being able to see family, friends, colleagues, loved ones. There needs to be change, we have received some positive news over the last few days and weeks with a potential vaccine that could help us all get out and move. Hopefully that will bring the thousands of supporters back into stadiums. We're very hopeful that change is coming and we can see light at the end of the tunnel."