That is why the League Managers' Association have used him to groom young coaches and managers.
If you wanted a role model for a burgeoning football manager you couldn't do much better than pick Burkinshaw.
"He's done it all and he's done it properly," said Peter Shreeves, his one-time coaching assistant at Spurs. "He's a man of enormous integrity and he knows his way around professional football."
Burkinshaw has just returned with his wife Joyce from a holiday in Cape Town and may be thankful that he had a break before pitching himself into the fight to halt Watford's decline.
It is a challenge for him at this stage in his career but what is certain is that his vast experience will prove invaluable in assisting Boothroyd in his first job in management.
