Danny Drinkwater was never close to being sent back to Chelsea despite drink-fuelled nightclub brawl, insists Burnley boss Sean Dyche
SEAN DYCHE says he was never tempted to cut his losses with Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater after his nightclub bust-up, and send him packing.
The Burnley boss refused to say whether the on-loan midfielder would be punished for the drunken night out that ended with him being set on by a bunch of thugs, who tried to break his leg.
But when he was asked if he that thought about sending Drinkwater, 29, back to Chelsea – or imposing a fine for the drink-fuelled incident – Dyche said it had not crossed his mind.
He said: “You can do that, and I’m not there to question people who do. I just take things as I find them in my own professional manner. So no, I just talked to him, and the rest of it is private
“First, I wanted to find out facts which I did. Secondly, look at the reality of it and forget about him being a footballer, and accept things happen in life.
“They are human beings and have private lives which are sometimes not private. Sometimes people get in scrapes. He’s old enough and wise enough to know not to get in scrapes but sometimes it happens.
“The other thing, and we’ve been big on that during our time here, you can’t just talk about development when it’s good news. You also to have work with players when it’s not quite so good.
“It’s been more of that sort of situation. I’ve had a chat with him about what happened, the situation that led to it. Now it’s a case of where we go from here. That’s where we’re at.”
Drinkwater, who was hit with an 18 month ban drink-driving ban earlier this year, suffered an ankle injury after being set on. That will prevent him training for at least two more weeks.
Dyche added: “The injury is not ideal, it’s part and parcel of the incident. Not too serious but he’s with the physios now, and it’s still going to be like that for a couple of weeks. Then he’ll need to get out on the grass and play a couple of games to catch up.
“He’s a player I’ve worked with before at Watford quite a number of years ago. So I know a little but about what he’s about.
“He’s had success in his career, winning England caps, and winning the title with Leicester, and we want to get him back to that. This is just a bump in his situation.
“We want to get him back to being fully fit, having that eye of the tiger and being a top player, which he is showing he can be. There are no two ways about that.
“When we take someone in regardless of loan he becomes part of us. So we’ve got to work with the player in the correct manner.
“It’s easy to spend time with players when things are rosy, sometimes it’s more satisfying to work with players when things aren’t right. So we will continue to work with him and help him to get back to where he was and where he wants to be.”
“He wants to be back there playing well. Had a tough couple of years not playing much. Want the hunger and desire to flow back into him but he’s got to earn that. He was doing very well until this incident.
“The only way he can do that is to get himself right here and into the team.”
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Dyche said he was always reluctant to blame players who get caught up in “difficult” situations.
He added: “Everyone has got a phone an opinion, they snap things and send it out in the world when the story is nothing of the sort. Things can get contorted quickly.
“In my seven years at Burnley there have been limited situations here – that’s not on Danny .The stats and the facts means that one of your players is going to have a scrape of some kind.
“But I’ve always believed that if you affect the person, you affect the performance. When someone is having a tough time, you can’t say I don’t want to do that anymore - I give the players my support on and off the pitch.”