Burnley’s Ben Mee opens up about European failure

After the second leg defeat to Olympiacos F.C, Burnley's Europa League journey was over before it had even started. 

Burnley finished in seventh-place finish last season, their best in 44 years and consequently qualified for the Europa League. 

“The thing is the appetite is still there to play at that level – none of it put us off,” he told 'The Guardian'.

"People spent the summer warning us how difficult it would be to combine Thursday in Europe with maintaining standards in the Premier League, but the chance to compete in the Europa League was an attraction. So many of the boys hadn’t had that on their CVs.

"It was all new and exciting, and a challenge we wanted to embrace. So to go out when so close ... it was horribly disappointing. At least we gave it a proper go in the second leg against Olympiakos, when we threw everything at them and created so many chances. It just wasn’t to be.

“But there was bound to be some kind of fallout from that. We’d targeted Europe for a season and brought new faces in over the summer with Europa League football in mind. Then, suddenly, it was snatched away and we were having to refocus ‘only’ on the Premier League, as daft as that sounds. It did affect us, as a group.

"Maybe that explains a bit why we had such a downbeat start in the league. But the manager comes into his own on things like that. We had a good few meetings about our plans, our targets, in the September international break and tried to remind ourselves what we’re good at, what our qualities are,” he added. 

Burnley have made a solid start to the Premier League, with the Lancashire-based club sitting comfortably in 12 position.