"Annihilation" - Craig Bellamy doesn't hold back on Burnley FC promotion-winning season | OneFootball

Wales boss Craig Bellamy reflected fondly on his time as assistant manager at Burnley, reminiscing on how his side walked the league two seasons ago

Wales boss Craig Bellamy reflected on some fond Burnley memories in midweek, as he lauded the Clarets' 2022/23 promotion winning season, claiming it was "an annihilation".

Bellamy was working as an assistant to Vincent Kompany that season, one in which Burnley claimed 101 points on their way to securing an instant return to the Premier League.

It wasn't just the fact Burnley bounced straight back which made the promotion so special, it was the circumstances under which they did it, with the club in absolute turmoil when Kompany took over.

Having sacked Sean Dyche in April 2022, Mike Jackson oversaw the end of Burnley's relegation to the Championship, and with it always unlikely that he'd get the permanent job, Burnley were managerless after relegation and had to face the reality that most of their key players would leave.

That proved to be the case, as a host of players left, and with a raft also coming in, alongside a completely new style of play, many believed Burnley would be a work in progress throughout the campaign.

While that was true up until around November when Burnley clicked, once they did click, absolutely no one was stopping them on their way to the Premier League.

Bellamy claimed nobody has ever been promoted in the same manner as Burnley

After Kompany left Burnley in the summer to take up the Bayern Munich job, Bellamy elected not to follow him and instead decided to go it alone in management, and the Wales job seemed a perfect fit.

Speaking in midweek whilst on Wales media duties, Bellamy didn't hold back as he reflected on his time at Burnley, and was quick to have it be known that what the Clarets achieved has never been done before.

"We murdered the league, and it was that. It hadn't been done before," said Bellamy.

"Someone else might have got five-odd points more [over a season] but, trust me, you didn't do what we did. Nobody did.

"We only lost three games all season and one of them was when we were already promoted. It was the manner in which we did it.

"From November onwards, nobody saw the ball, everywhere we went. Home or away, it was an annihilation. If teams got a 0-0 draw, they were applauding and doing a lap of honour. It was that good.

"It was just like 'wow'. We were so good without the ball, the intensity… and, with it, we were able to find different solutions, able to adapt."

Burnley's promotion season saw them set some records

While the ultimate goal of promotion was achieved, it will leave a bitter taste in the mouth of Kompany that they just came up short in pursuit of Reading's record Championship points total of 106.

Even so, Burnley were the first side since Leicester in 2013/14 to clock up over 100 Championship points, so the enormity of that alone cannot be understated.

Arguably as big an achievement as that was Burnley's 10 Championship wins in a row, marking them out as one of just two teams in Championship history to do so since the league rebranded in 2004.

There were several other high points throughout the season - a 3-0 home win against Blackburn Rovers which was their biggest win against their fierce rivals since 1965, thumping wins against North West rivals Wigan and Preston, and promotion on Good Friday away to Middlesbrough, who are the time were a near rival.

For Burnley fans, that season will trump most others they've ever seen, and although Reading fans will argue they're still the best team in Championship history, rightly so given their record points haul, Bellamy's claims certainly have some weight to them.