All is well on the good ship Burnley. We are deservedly top of the League with an undoubtedly talented squad of players. Performances, on the whole, have been impressive. The club has a management team that has taken the club on to a higher level of achievement, after decades of under performing.
The appointment of Stan Ternent to this football club has proved the catalyst for these changes. His is surely the most important signing this club has made in the last 30 years. His arrival at Burnley back in 1998, after the debacle of the Waddle season, was no surprise; indeed, his name had been mentioned many times before when the job became available.
Ternent took over the running of a stagnant club. The resurgence of the late eighties and early nineties was in the past. We had avoided relegation back into the basement literally by the skin of our teeth on the last day of the previous season. Thankfully, Waddle had fallen on his sword, probably the best decision of his short Burnley career. It cannot be understated just how much damage the former Marseille and England winger did at Turf Moor. He brought in a series of mediocre players, misfits from other clubs, has beens and for the most part never will bes. He paid out a good deal of money, money that we could not afford to squander, on these no hopers, and you can bet that players like Mark Ford and Lee Howey were on suitably large contracts. Waddle lacked any sort of managerial skill. His best days as a player were well behind him.
It was therefore only natural that he should appoint an experienced assistant. Unfortunately he chose his good friend and all round Prince of Darkness, Glenn Roeder. Roeder epitomised the failed football manager, and here was his chance, along with Waddle, to make a name for himself at a club of some stature. This they proceeded to do, although not in the way they would of hoped. In short, Waddle and Roeder succeeded in taking the club backwards.
Enter Stan Ternent and Sam Ellis to repair the not inconsiderable damage Ternent immediately proved that he was a hard taskmaster, his virtual sacking of three players at half time during a 1-0 home defeat by York proving the point. He continued to root out the weeds one by one. He would also take criticism that first season for commenting after some setbacks, "That's not my team out there. When I get my team you'll see a difference." He was right. That wasn't his team, it was Waddle's, and Stan didn't have the funds to change that; Waddle had spent them the previous season.
As the season progressed, it was clear that we would once again struggle to maintain second division status. It is also unclear just how close Stan came to quitting the job after the disastrous back to back 5-0 and 6-0 home defeats to Gillingham and Manchester City respectively. It is rumoured that he tendered his resignation after the latter to the new Chairman Barry Kilby. It has been said that the board were split and Kilby had the deciding vote. How true this is we will probably never know. Suffice it to say that, when pressed on the subject by some of our members at one of the London Clarets functions, Barry Kilby smiled and politely refused to comment.
The rest, as they say, is history. Yet still people doubt him. Stan re-shaped his team, starting at the back. In came Cox, Davis and Thomas, as the board backed the manager with funds. Paul Cook, who was to become so instrumental in the second division promotion season, had joined the club permanently after spending a couple of months on loan at the end of the previous season. The squad gradually built up into a formidable force, culminating in the remarkable capture of Ian Wright towards the back end of the season. Promotion came at Scunthorpe, as Gillingham blew up at Wrexham, and Burnley were back in the first division.
This time we had the board and the manager to stay there. Ternent made some inspired signings. The capture of Nik Michopoulos from PAOK Salonika proved to be a massively important piece of business, and NTG, thanks to an M62 traffic jam, has rightly established himself as one of the division's best keepers. Ian Moore became Burnley's first, and so far only, million pound man, when he signed from Stockport County. Ternent's astute management, and the acquisition of other important figures like Kevin Ball, would carry the Clarets to the verge of the play offs, a highly commendable 7th place being earned.
In reality, it was now that the hard work would begin. Expectation levels had risen to uncharted highs, and many fans were happily dreaming of Premiership football. The hard part would be maintaining the progress made over the past three seasons.
And here we are. December, four points clear at the top of the League. Who would have truly believed it? The most difficult part for me is waiting for it all to blow up. I spent the best part of last season expecting us to collapse at any moment. This, I believe, comes quite simply from following Burnley; the last two seasons are the sort of thing that happens to other sides and we look enviously on through the window. It has become difficult now for us, because we have grown used to disappointment, and this is why I believe that, for the most part, Clarets fans tend to hide behind pessimism. It is a way of deflecting the disappointment that we are sure is around the corner. This is no bad thing. It helps us to keep our feet on the ground.
The team has, in the main, been truly magnificent so far this season. We are an intensely hard working side, with a sprinkling of highly talented individuals. The signing of Alan Moore has given us the extra width that we required, whilst allowing Glen Little, who is a different player from last season, the chance to terrorise defences. It is a tribute to Little's ability that the opposition often feel the need to put two men on him. Ian Moore is playing a highly important role for the club. His pace and stamina are vitally important. He doesn't score enough goals, but truly makes up for this in other areas of his game.
Moore is unusual; he is an exception to the rule at Burnley. Usually, if a striker is not scoring goals, the crowd can become a little niggled with him, no matter what his work rate and other aspects of his game. This doesn't happen to Moore. The usual comment is that he is a talented player, and rightly so. On the other side of this are players like Gareth Taylor. He will score goals, and contributes in other areas of the game, but players like him are also prone to stick from the crowd, simply because of their demeanour. Thankfully, this appears to have subsided now at Turf Moor, as fans are beginning to realise that he does an equally important job as Ian Moore.
Talking of strikers brings me on to the sad subject of Andy Payton. I, for one, have always been a great supporter of the Clarets star, but after his latest brush with the law, it is surely time for the manager to say enough is enough, and if a cash offer is forthcoming, to move the player on. It is sad to see a player of Payton's undoubted ability wasting the twilight years of his career on the bench and in a police cell.
Ternent appears to be promoting a new policy now at Turf Moor. He has, with his recent signings, lowered the average age of the squad at Turf Moor. This has, unfortunately, brought into question the future career of Paul Cook. It was undoubtedly a shock when he was offloaded to Wigan on a month's loan, particularly when he has been such an integral part of the side this season, but it is understandable from the manager's point of view. Ternent has gone on record as saying that Cook's contract is up at the end of the season, and he cannot commit himself until he knows what division we will be in next season. This is fair enough. Cook is coming up to 35 years old, and Ternent does not have the sufficient funds to hand out contracts now to players who might be surplus to requirements if we happened to win promotion. In fact, Ternent is being highly professional in allowing Cook the option of finding himself another deal before the end of the season. I for one am sure that he will have no trouble whatsoever in finding many a willing taker for his quality services.
I am convinced that this season will see the departure of Mitchell Thomas from Turf Moor. No one can doubt the contribution that he has made to the club, but age and fitness appears to have caught up on him, and retirement beckons.
The future of the club is in safe hands. We have a progressive board and Chairman, and a massively underrated management team. The squad could do with a bit of fleshing out, and perhaps a little trimming here and there, but overall the future of our club is looking bright. Hopefully we can maintain the progress of the last three years and banish the dark days of Waddle and Roeder forever. We must realise that we will never become media darlings; we quite simply are not fashionable enough, nor do we have a mediocre but high profile manager.
In the past three years the business side of the club itself has moved on, and has become extremely competent. The fans must realise that this is the future, especially in the higher echelons of league football. People can be quick to criticise and slow to praise. It is about time that those supporters who make a hobby of criticising the club's every move realise just how far this club has risen in the past three years, and where we once stood with the old shambolic board and management. Football is quite simply a business now, and I for one am delighted at the quality of the people running this great club. We can only hope that the progress continues.
