Jay Rodriguez plays down concerns over Burnley's managerial uncertainty

It’s been almost a month since Vincent Kompany left Turf Moor to take over German giants Bayern Munich.

Plenty of names have been linked to the post, but as yet chairman Alan Pace and the board are yet to find their man.

That’s left the Clarets in an awkward position after a number of players made their return to Gawthorpe on Monday for the start of pre-season training.

Acting head coach Craig Bellamy, who is thought to be a contender for the number one job, has been taking charge of training alongside his interim assistant Mike Jackson.

Despite the Clarets being without a permanent boss, Rodriguez insists that hasn’t had a negative impact on the first week back in training at all.

“It’s just been business as usual,” the 34-year-old told Sky Sports.

“It’s been nice to see everyone, you start off with all the testing and then getting back to training.

“Bellers and Jacko have done a great job so far and the lads have worked really hard, so it’s just continued to keep improving and looking forward to the first game.”

Rodriguez was talking after Burnley discovered their fixture list for the 2024/25 Championship season.

The Clarets, who will be desperate to get back to the Premier League at the first attempt, start their campaign with a trip to Luton Town, followed by a home clash against Cardiff City.

A trip to Sunderland follows before a tasty East Lancashire derby against Blackburn Rovers at Turf Moor at the end of August.

“You want to get ready as soon as you can and get the momentum going for the season, so the first six games are really important,” Rodriguez added.

“It’s obviously a long season, so it’s really important to have a good start.

“The Championship is so difficult, it’s physically and mentally [draining] and the fixture list is quite full on, but it’s a great league to be in and it’s something that we look forward to. Hopefully we can have a similar season to what we had [in the Championship] last time round.”