Ian Burchnall has never been someone who has been afraid to move abroad for a fresh start.
In an intriguing career to date, Burchnall has held coaching or managerial roles in Norway, Sweden and the UK with Sarpsborg, Viking, Ostersunds, Notts County and Forest Green Rovers.
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However, despite being appointed as Rob Edwards’ successor at Forest Green last year, Burchnall left the club in January and the next step on his coaching journey has taken him to Belgium.
Burchnall was appointed as assistant manager at Anderlecht in March and the Belgian giants have the likes of Jan Vertonghen as well as Islam Slimani amongst their squad.
Anderlecht are, of course, the club who gave Vincent Kompany his first opportunity in management and Burchnall is relishing the chance to follow in the Burnley manager’s footsteps.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, Burchnall said: “He did a great job and people within the club speak very highly of Vincent and the work that he’s done.
“I shouldn’t say just Vincent, though, because Craig Bellamy was there and when I speak to the staff, there is absolutely nothing but top praise for Craig Bellamy as a coach and a person.
“When you’re about the place, you know that they’ve done a good job and that was recognised and you can see Burnley have kicked on with somebody like Vincent and Craig Bellamy in the building. For me it’s great to follow that [pathway] and just take some bits, ask some questions and learn about some of the things they were doing.
“Brian Riemer the [Anderlecht] manager is top; I’m learning a lot from him. He obviously worked at Brentford [as Thomas Frank’s assistant] for many years. So, I’ve got the ability now to learn a lot from somebody like that, which I’m grateful for.”
The Anderlecht assistant’s career is slightly similar to former Chelsea boss Graham Potter and the duo came up against each other during their early careers in management.
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Burchnall’s Leeds University faced Potter when he was in charge of Leeds Metropolitan University and that wouldn’t be the only time their paths crossed.
The 40-year-old succeeded Potter at Swedish outfit Ostersunds in 2018 following a stint in charge of Viking in Norway and for Burchnall, it was an incredibly difficult act to follow.
“It just isn’t possible [to improve on what Potter did] because he’d been at the club for seven years and had four promotions and taken the team from zero into beating Galatasaray, PAOK, Bilbao and beating Arsenal at the Emirates in the Europe League, even though they got knocked out,” Burchnall explains.
“It’s hard when you’re playing university football to imagine the coach opposite you is going to end up at Chelsea. What I’d say is his team always had an identity and a way of playing and it was always attractive and attacking football. Even when we were at university football, you could see that and that was with far less coaching time on the pitch than what you’d get now.
“The biggest thing with Graham is if you give him time, without a doubt you’re going to gain success. You saw it with Brighton and it’s what happened at Ostersunds. Of course, it’s hard to get time at Chelsea. From my early meetings with him, you could see he was a top-class coach.
“Any club would be lucky to have him. I’m absolutely sure he’ll be back in the game [soon] and he’ll be wanting to put right any question marks he’s had after his time at Chelsea.”
Burchnall led Ostersunds to sixth and twelfth place finishes in the Swedish Allsvenskan and enjoyed a close relationship with the club’s fans, so much so that he got involved in musical performances for the supporters at the end of the season.
“It started out as a very small culture project, so they got the players involved in different cultural things locally. It could be like art galleries, painting, chess or small things like reading books and it escalated year on year,” he explains.
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“I think by the end, they wanted the full club to put a performance on and you work all year at it and then at the end of the season you perform for the supporters. You’d have an auditorium like a proper theatre with 500 or 600 people.
“We did three performances. The year before I was there, I think Graham [Potter] did Swan Lake. We did musical theatre, so we were singing and dancing and all the players are involved. It seems ridiculous at the time but the chairman said to me: ‘It’s in the contract, everybody has to do it.’
“He basically said it’s to break down fear, so if you’re not afraid to stand and sing in front of 500 people, you won’t be afraid to step out at the Emirates and play a game. So, I kind of understood the principle behind it.
“Actually, when you finish, some of the lads say it’s one of the best team building things they’ve ever done. I’m not sure I’d convince a team in England to be able to do it!
“The fans loved it and even when I left, the supporters club threw a huge party in the town. I was really humbled by it.”
Burchnall is unsure when he might return to the UK but hasn’t been put off by the cut-throat environment that comes with working in England.
“It’s becoming a really bad environment to try to manage in at times. You look at the amount of changes in the Premier League and then through the EFL, you know you’re only two or three results away [from the sack] and it’s really hard to gain long-term perspective on whatever you want to do,” he finished.
“For me, I’ve kind of got to the point where I accept it. When I left Forest Green, it put me off a little bit and I was like: ‘Do you know what that’s why I’ve taken the assistant manager’s role’ and I’ve really enjoyed being able to take a step back and [enjoy] the purity of coaching. But it won’t put me off long-term.”
