Win
some, lose one: pre-season so far
Things
are Luke-ing up: this month's news to date
31
July - pre-season looking good
Of
course, whether or not one believes that
pre-season games are a pointer to future
performance
depends on, well, how things go. If pre-season
is bad, then we try to convince
ourselves that "the worse the pre-season,
the better
the season proper". If things are good, then
we believe that
pre-season form is the key indicator
of future performance.
And if things
are mediocre, we pick out
the good bits and forget the bad.
We
still have to play Birmingham on Saturday,
of course, but so far it's been pretty good.
We came third in the Isle of Man "International
Football Festival", beat Leeds 4-2, and drew
1-1 with Accy Stanley. So, what does this
predict? Tricky - and we have no more idea
than anyone else. If we had to stick our
necks
out, though, we'd hazard a guess at mid-table
mediocrity. And that would be absolutely
fine.
One
thing that is a concern is that we haven't
signed any new players since Chadwick. The
squad that went to the Isle of Man took along
three trialists (defenders Clive Delaney
and Fabrice Richard, and striker Mickael
Antoine-Curier), but Stan has stated that
he won't be pursuing his interest in any
of them. We have a few injuries within the
squad, too: Gnohere, Blake, Weller and Alan
Moore have all been carrying minor knocks,
and Chadwick looks set to miss the first
few games of the season after undergoing
a jaw operation (though he did travel with
the squad to the IoM, so at least knows what
he's let himself in for!). More worryingly,
Mark McGregor has a knee problem that looks
like it may need surgery, and Golden Bonce
is of course ruled out for the foreseeable
future thanks to Dirty Leeds' Michael
Duberry.
Stan
may have had difficulty finding new players,
but his usual talent for locating scapegoats
has once again been in evidence. Apparently
we were in the running to sign young
Manchester United midfielder Michael Stewart
on loan; however, he's chosen to go instead
to Nottingham Forest. Ternent made the following
statement (grammar and punctuation courtesy
of Stan / burnleyfootballclub.com):
"I
would've liked to have got Michael Stewart
to the club and now he's
going to Forest, so I'd like to thank the
users of an unofficial website for that.
"Only
me and Fergie knew about that, but they alerted
everyone to it, Sky got hold of it and now
he's at Forest and we've missed out on a
fantastic midfield player for the season."
Hysterical?
Paranoid? Hmm. Certainly a prime example
of faulty reasoning - let's pick out a few
of the more obvious flaws:
• If only Stan and Fergie knew about
it, and Stan didn't leak the information, then Fergie
must
have been
the
one with the loose lips.
• Rumours about Michael Stewart going out on
loan somewhere have been circulating in the media for
weeks. There was nothing on the "unofficial website"
that wasn't already public knowledge.
• It's not very likely that
the move was precipitated by the website's "users".
The player's agent would doubtless have been looking
for clubs to take Stewart on loan. Stewart
himself
would have friends at other clubs, and may have put
out a few feelers himself.
• Nottingham Forest
took
Stewart
on
loan
on
the
basis of comments on a fans' website?
Here's
another theory: Burnley and Forest were both
interested in taking Stewart on loan. The
final decision about where
to
spend the season was Stewart's, and for whatever
reason he
preferred
to go to Forest. There's only one flaw in that theory:
there's no-one to take the blame and deflect
attention from Stan's own failure to sign
a midfielder. Still, we know which scenario
we find more plausible.
10
July - this is more like it!
After
spending several weeks worrying about the lack
of players at Turf Moor, our nerves have been
soothed a little by progress this month so
far.
First
to arrive (actually signing on the last day
of June) was Danish keeper Brian Jensen, on
a two-year deal. "The Beast" spent
the past three years at West Brom, where, although
apparently highly rated, he was left kicking
his heels as third choice. He'll soon have
an opportunity to show them what they were
missing, as our first away game next season
is of course at... West Brom! We'd like to
welcome Brian to the Turf, and look forward
to watching him in action.
And
then... today saw the excellent news that Manchester
United midfielder Luke Chadwick has signed
for Burnley on a season-long loan. A few weeks
ago, all the indications were that both he
and Glen Little might be off to Reading for
good. Which perhaps shows that it's not worth
worrying too much about rumours. Anyway, we're
sure that Luke will prove to be an astute signing,
and we'd like to welcome him to the Turf.
Of
course, we are talking about Burnley here,
so there have to be some departures as well.
So far this month there have been two, both
rather unexpected.
The
first leaver was the Club's Chief Executive,
Andrew Watson, who's off to Huddersfield Town.
Along with Barry Kilby, Watson has been largely
responsible for significantly improving the
commercial side of things at Burnley. Maybe
it's a good time for him to move, though, as
his popularity with the supporters certainly
fell during the course of last season. However,
he was kind enough to speak at our 2001 AGM,
and we wish him well for the future. Hopefully
he will be able to help turn the Terriers'
fortunes around.
The
second departure was also a surprise, though
perhaps not such a big one on reflection. Dimi
Papadopoulos returned to Greece, signing for
Panathinaikos for an undisclosed fee (widely
believed to be around £200K). Although
the Club has undoubtedly made a loss on the
half million paid for him, apparently there
is a sell-on clause which may benefit Burnley
in the future. Many will feel that Papa was
never given sufficient chance to show what
he was capable of, though, and it will be interesting
to see how he fares in the future. We wish
him well.
As
regards more signings, the Gaffer has confirmed
that he's looking at former Man City captain
Richard Edghill. This could be promising -
we certainly need another defender. Still,
there's nothing concrete as yet. Other targets
are rumoured to be Wolves midfielder Alex Rae,
and another Manchester United youngster (in
the shape of midfielder Michael Stewart).
So,
we'll have to wait and see - but things certainly
look a whole lot better than they did a few
weeks ago. Roll on the 9th of August!
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necessarily reflect the view of the Burnley FC London Supporters Club.
