Walker relishing Championship challenge with Burnley - 'I am not becoming anyone's meme'

It may be more than 15 years since Kyle Walker last graced the Championship, but his mentality hasn't changed.

The veteran defender has not played in the second tier of English football since the 2010-11 campaign, where he briefly starred in the resolute QPR team that would go on to win the league under Neil Warnock. Back then, at the age of 20, Walker was a young prospect with his whole career ahead of him. He returns to the Championship as one of the most decorated right-back's in English football with 96 caps for his country, six Premier League titles and a Champions League triumph all to his name.

But motivation will not be an issue despite all he has accomplished as he prepares for what will be his first ever full campaign in the Championship following Burnley's relegation.

"I think if I have to get motivated to play football, I should stay in bed in the morning," Walkers says. "It's a job that I'm doing that millions want to do. So if you're not motivated to play football and don't win games, I'm definitely in the wrong job."

Walker turned 36 in May but insists the physical demands of an unforgiving 46-game season in the Championship is no cause for concern. He says his physical powers have not waned, attributing his "genetic gifts" to mum and dad.

After amassing an abundance of accolades in the game, Walker already knows he will be a target for ambitious wingers looking to make a name for themselves. But while Walker accepts he will be a scalp, he is adamant nobody will be turning him into a meme.

"I think they try to create, what is it called, memes now? They’ll try and create memes out of me and I can assure you that I am not becoming anyone’s meme," Walker says.

"So when you come against me, I'll give it 100 percent. If you beat me on the day, you know, you shake hands at the end of the game, and you say it's a good game. I'm not rolling out anything to become a meme."

Walker was earmarked for greatness long before he had a chance to truly get to grips with the relentless cut and thrust of the Championship; Tottenham snapped him up from his boyhood club, Sheffield United, in the summer of 2009 after just a handful of senior appearances.

A return to his beloved Bramall Lane followed in the form of a loan spell but it was his temporary stint at QPR which was the catalyst for the trophy-laden career Walker has gone on to enjoy.

"Playing in the Championship - it grounds you, but it also teaches you. It can be very humbling as well," he adds, referencing the wealth of experience that inhabited said QPR dressing room.

"We had a very good team. Neil Warnock took me and I played every game and then I went to Aston Villa for the last part of the season. I fell back in love with football a bit - I wouldn’t say I’d fallen out of love - but I went on loan from Tottenham, got called back and didn't really play as many games as I wanted. And then Harry [Redknapp] let me go back [out] on loan to get some games under my belt.

"I loved it. I probably didn’t want to leave to go to Aston Villa because I was playing football and winning every game, but it was something that I needed to do personally to make that step up to the Premier League."

From there, the Sheffield-born defender never looked back. Months later he won his first senior England cap. He then became a staple in the Tottenham team before a blockbuster transfer to Manchester City, where Walker acquired his taste for silverware.

After eight seasons in sky blue, Walker left City permanently last year with 15 major trophies to his name in order to embark on a new challenge with Burnley; a move which presented Walker with an opportunity to escape the 'noise' that becomes a non-negotiable extra for those who operate at the truly elite level.

He explains: "The scrutiny is not as big, but I think then you probably scrutinise yourself more because you’re so used to achieving and winning a lot more games. You look back at yourself and think ‘What could I have done?’.

"Last season, most of all, it was about the mental game. I can play the game of football; that didn’t stop just because I went to Burnley. But mentally it was different and something that I had to channel into. But then that’s something I can pass onto the younger players now and hopefully give my experience."

As Walker alludes to, after almost a decade at a club where success has become almost synonymous, last year was a different experience altogether. The beleaguered Clarets suffered a death by a thousand cuts, winning just four Premier League games all season.

There is an "obligation" for he and those who have stayed at the club to right the wrongs of that chastening campaign, says Walker, who adds that relegation has left a "sour taste" in the mouth.

While some have moved on, he had no qualms about returning to the level that helped truly elevate his career, even if a Championship encore was not on his footballing bucket list.

"It’s our job," he says. "Things aren’t always going to go as planned. This season might not go as planned. It might not be as plain sailing as we all want it to be. But I feel with the quality, what we have in the dressing room, that’s what we should be doing: getting promoted and going back to the Premier League."

Nicky Hayen has been tasked with achieving that feat following a protracted manager search earlier this summer. The Belgian previously impressed with Genk and Walker's first impressions of the 45-year-old have been positive.

"He has been great," says Walker of Hayen. "The information he has given is key, he is very direct and I feel when a manager comes in they can give you sometimes too much information."

Burnley have immediately been installed as one of the favourites for promotion and Hayen will harbour ambitions of emulating the feats overseen by Vincent Kompany. Walker's former Manchester City team-mate masterminded a memorable promotion campaign for Burnley back in 2022-23, losing just three games and racking up an impressive 101 points.

Walker has already picked the brains of the Bayern Munich boss, revealing: "I've spoken to Vinny, I've got words from him. How did he find it after achieving what he’s achieved? He says it’s difficult. It is something that is going to be attached to yourself personally [the expectation to win] but it is also very enjoyable.

"You become a big fish again, and you get a little bit more of the ball, and it's a bit more of the game that I'm used to playing at Manchester City.

"So, hopefully, we can replicate that for when Vinny went up because I think they broke 100 points and kind of tore the Championship apart."

Now in the twilight years of his career, Walker argued that staying up last season would have been equivalent to a seventh Premier League title. That wasn't to be, but a Championship crown would go some way to quenching Walker's insatiable thirst for more achievements.

"There's always losing in football and there's always achieving in football," Walker says. "All the time I've got a football shirt on my back, I'll always give my all and I won't settle for anything less. I've got a bar for myself, but I've also got a bar more importantly for the team, and if anyone falls underneath that, then they will be told that it's not acceptable.

"But hopefully, from what I've seen in pre-season, what I've seen in training, and obviously from the manager and everything like that, we're all going in the same direction — and that's to get this club back to the Premier League."

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