Sean Dyche: Ex-Burnley boss on how he got on stage with the Happy Mondays

Sean Dyche lives in Nottingham, having started his football career in the city as a youth player at Nottingham Forest

Sharing the stage with the Happy Mondays at a music festival is not where Sean Dyche ever expected to find himself when taking a break from management.

But that is where the 52-year-old former Burnley boss ended up after being thrust there by Line of Duty star Vicky McClure.

And Dyche admits that his nine months out of the game has reminded him “there is a life out there”.

“When I came out of it, there are managers that I trust and who are a lot longer in tooth than me who I spoke to and said ‘get a break’,” Dyche told BBC Radio Nottingham.

“And it was good advice like don’t start obsessing over football, don’t watch every bit of football, get away from it. Do other things you promised to do when you were doing what you have been doing for 10 years, rattling up and down the motorway.

“I don’t hide the fact that I like gigs, I like a night out, I like a couple of beers like anyone else does, and I like to see friends, family and socialise.

“Football managers are humans, believe it or not.”

Dyche was the Premier League’s longest serving manager when sacked by Burnley after a decade at the helm at Turf Moor.

He lost his job with eight games of the campaign remaining – one which he said he told the club’s owners “would be tight” – with the Clarets relegated to the Championship on the final day of the season.

“I wasn’t lacking energy, I wasn’t lacking the fight and desire to do what we needed to do,” Dyche said.

“I thought we could get it done.”

Dyche does not hide that “stress and pressure” were a big part of his life while in charge of Burnley, but he accepts it all as a “normal” part of management.

When repeatedly spotted in Nottingham, the city where he now lives, Premier League side Forest – a club he featured for as a youth player – became the latest side to be linked with him.

“Watching games has become awkward,” he admits.

“With Steve [Cooper] seven or eight games ago, turning up at Forest would have people think I’m after his job.

“It turns out I live here. Loads of people don’t know that, which I find strange. But it’s not like I promote it.”

Spotting Dyche at music events has also become more common place, with famous local venue Rock City a regular haunt.

His appearance on stage at the Splendour Festival, however, took even him by surprise – having been encouraged by McClure and her partner Jonny Owen, the actor, presenter and film producer, who also both live in Nottingham.

“The guys that run Splendour invited me and said do you want to come on to the wings of the stage?” Dyche said.

“When the Happy Mondays first came around I used go to the Hacienda and all that sort of thing. I’m there [at Splendour] with my son and he is saying ‘go on dad, you would love that. When you were my age you would have buzzed off that’.

“I’m there with Jonny Owen and Vicky McClure and they were saying ‘come on’.

“Then I did that weird thing, only going about a third the way on and thought ‘I’m not going to the front of this stage. No chance’.

“When you get a break, it is nice to do other things.”