Burnett was born in Lambeth, London and started out playing for Leyton Orient as a youngster, and represented England at youth level. He soon earned himself a move to Blackburn Rovers, becoming one of Kenny Dalglish's first signings but after a year with the Rovers he was transferred to Plymouth Argyle in 1993. In 1995 Premiership newcomers Bolton Wanderers signed Burnett. But after only a season with the club he was sold to Huddersfield Town following a short loan spell. His time in Yorkshire was a rather mixed one. He alternated between a deep-lying creative midfield role and that of a libero-style sweeper. Described as a flair player with much skill, he scored a wonder goal against Bradford City from just inside his own half in a League Cup tie, which proved to be his only goal for Huddersfield. At the time of his goal, the tie was balanced at 2–2 on aggregate. Burnett's goal in the 77th minute put Huddersfield through to the next round. Following a clear out at Huddersfield, Burnett was loaned to Grimsby Town in 1998 and scored in his debut against Scunthorpe United as the Mariners put their local rivals out of the Football League Trophy. It was in the same competition at Wembley Stadium against Bournemouth that Burnett scored the winning golden goal in the 1998 final and played in the promotion winning team in the play-off final a month later. Burnett helped the Mariners to an impressive finish in the Championship, almost securing a play-off spot to the Premiership the following season. He stayed with Grimsby until the summer of 2002, but was troubled by a persistent injury problem that made him miss chunks of the 1999–2000, 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons. Burnett was released by manager Paul Groves with the player sidelined for the majority of his time in his last season. Burnett dropped out of professional football and signed with Conference National club Woking, but his time at his new club was short lived after a spat with the club's supporters. The incident happened in a Conference game in which Woking were trailing 2–0 with 20 minutes remaining. Burnett was brought on as a substitute but could not change the outcome of the game. In a statement made to the Grimsby Telegraph, Burnett claimed that Woking supporters had singled him out for abuse, stating that they expected him to come on and win the game for them because he was a professional footballer. Burnett claimed that just because he is a professional does not mean he can change the outcome of every game. He then joined Grays Athletic and Fisher Athletic for a short period of time before appearing to retire from the sport. In 2004 Burnett made a return to the professional game signing for Peterborough United on a non-contract basis. He did not make any appearances for the club before leaving.
Managerial career
Burnett started his managerial career with Fisher Athletic in 2004, winning the London Senior Cup and Southern Football LeagueEastern Division. He then joined Dulwich Hamlet in 2006. He was appointed manager of Fisher Athletic for the second time in May 2007. On 23 September 2008, it was announced that Burnett would join Conference side Grays Athletic as manager on 29 September. He left the club by mutual consent on 29 January 2009. Burnett briefly worked as the youth team manager at former club Leyton Orient before it was confirmed on 7 May 2009 that Burnett would take up the position of assistant manager to John Still at League Two club Dagenham & Redbridge for the forthcoming 2009–10 season. On 26 February 2013 Burnett was appointed caretaker manager following Still's departure to Luton Town. On 2 May 2013, following Dagenham & Redbridge's survival in League Two, Burnett was appointed permanent manager. After winning just one game from 16 played in the 2015–16 season, Burnett was sacked by Dagenham on 21 December 2015. On 29 June 2017, Burnett was appointed head coach of Tottenham Hotspur's under-23 team.
Acting career
During the 2003–04 season Burnett went into acting appearing as an extra for Sky One football television dramaDream Team. Burnett can be seen in a number of episodes appearing to be sat on the substitutes bench also training with the fictional Harchester United team.
