11/7 At the AGM we come
up with the brilliant idea of bringing back an old feature from a few years ago for the
magazine: a day by day diary of the season. Here goes then…
12/7 Ternent opens contact talks
with Weller, Brass and Smith. West Brom and West Ham are rumoured to be interested in
Weller. Meanwhile, Vinnicombe is set to play for Wycombe in a friendly on trial. Exeter,
Tranmere, Cardiff and Walsall have also been linked.
13/7 Wycombe are ready to sign
Vinnicombe, and with Brian Small gone to Stoke, ex Blackpool, Plymouth, Coventry, Wigan
and Bury defender Steve Morgan, currently on trial, seems set to fill in.
14/7 Brass and Smith both sign
new deals. Tony Parks turn down an approach to follow Vinnicombe to the Chairboys. Has the
world gone mad?
15/7 Weller continues to stall.
Vinnicombe plays for Wycombe. Oh, and Shackleton insists his take-over bid still has life
in it. Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before.
16/7 35 year old Ronnie Jepson
joins us on trial. Altogether now, "…at least he can’t score against
us." He has paid off his contract at Wigan. Huxford joins Dunfermline. Weller is left
behind from the trip south west. The squad is: Mawson, Smith, Ford, Carr-Lawton, Little,
Blatherwick, Winstanley, Brass, Cooke, Payton, Williams, Howey, Parks, Moore, Robertson,
Henderson, Morgan. With only three weeks before the season starts, we have to assume this
is the first team squad. Yikes.
17/7 The captaincy is up for
grabs. A tussle between, er, Howey and Moore seems likely. Andy Marriott has been linked,
surprisingly enough. Despite falling out with him, Wrexham will want a fee. The group of
supporters who had been threatening legal action over the non-take-over decide not to
proceed. It always was a gesture, but a day in court would have been cool. This was the
move which prompted Teasdale’s sublimely absurd statement that the club was not
reliant on income from supporters. Shackleton insists the take-over is still on.
18/7 Dawlish 0 Burnley 4,
at a canter. Goals come from Payton (penalty), Cooke, Carr-Lawton and Smith. A good London
Clarets attendance contributes to a strong Burnley following of an estimated 500 at Sandy
Lane. Team: Parks (Mawson 65), Brass (Robertson 46), Morgan, Ford, Moore (Howey 46),
Winstanley (Blatherwick 46), Little, Williams, Cooke (Carr-Lawton 46), Payton (Henderson
46), Smith. We play 4-4-2 and Moore is captain. See match report
for details. Meanwhile, Jamie "Panda" Hoyland joins Shrewsbury on a one year
contract.
20/7 No he doesn’t. He now
joins Scarborough on a two year deal as player-coach. There he will link up with former
Clarets hit man Liam Robinson. Speaking of sad yesterday’s men, chris waddle is
training with Chesterfield. The useless one, who claimed in between attending minor world
cup games that he was looking for a European club, has also been linked Darlington. In the
big news of the day, the bars formerly known as Marathon are quite rightly banned from
sale at Turf Moor after a trivia answer inside some wrappers disgracefully stated:
"Sorry you have not won this time – things could be worse: you could play for
Burnley." The boycott starts here.
21/7 Elmore 0 Burnley 4.
Scorers are Little, Payton, Little (pen) and Smith. Brass is captain. Estimated crowd is
400. To prove that some things don’t change, we are apparently untidy at the back and
struggle against set pieces. The team: Parks (Mawson 75), Williams, Winstanley (Morgan
46), Ford, Blatherwick (Moore 46), Brass, Little, Robertson (Howey 12), Cooke (Carr-Lawton
71), Payton (Henderson 71), Smith. Ternent says we will sign players. Vinnicombe is
"locked in talks" with Wycombe. It is pointed out that virtually all of Jimmy
Mullen’s first division signings have now left the club on frees. The net loss on
Vinnicombe, Robinson, Hoyland, Thompson and Nogan is close to a million pounds.
22/7 One of Shackleton’s
main backers for the alleged take-over, Michel Kupfer says, "There are obviously
difficulties but it is something that is out of my control. The more it is talked about
the less likely it is to happen. The financial world is very sensitive. I am not at all
involved in the Burnley deal. I haven't got those documents. This is not at all my
department." Shackleton is not available for comment.
23/7 Chris Vinnicombe agrees a
two year deal at Wycombe. We shall never forgive Andy Bernal. Mark Robertson sustained a
hamstring injury against Elmore.
24/7 Ternent says we are not
pursuing Marriott, and so far Parks has been impressive. Michael Williams has an ankle
injury… but it’s not serious. Clarets failure chris waddle thinks Ternent will
succeed at Burnley, all thanks to him. He says, "I enjoyed playing, and the day to
day running of the club, but there was just one factor which I felt too strongly about,
and couldn't see changing." That wouldn’t have been being crap, would it?
25/7 Halifax 3 Burnley 3.
Team: Parks (Mawson 46), Moore, Morgan, Ford (Winstanley 64), Blatherwick (Howey 64),
Brass, Little, Williams, Cooke (Henderson 58), Payton (Carr-Lawton 43), Smith. Clarets led
1-0 and 3-1 before succumbing to the usual defensive errors. Scorers were Blatherwick,
Sertori (og) and Cooke. Att: 2,962. Payton and Parks both limp off with injuries. After
the game Ternent criticises his defence, of which he has now tried every possible
permutation: "We have got to learn to defend better than that or we are not going
anywhere. That was abysmal, absolute rubbish but that's the problem with Burnley Football
Club and has been for a while. I will do something one way or the other. I am not having
that. It's my job to sort it out and I will sort it out. When I changed it and had a look
at one or two other things we were, in a nutshell, rubbish – defensively. We don't
defend from set-pieces. There are free headers, mickey mouse goals. It annoys me. It's
schoolboyish. If we have got to score four goals away from home to win a game and three
goals to draw if it was in the real world, no chance, no chance whatsoever. It's like a
mini racing a Rolls Royce down the motorway. It tries to keep up and blows up. Something
has to give and it always seems to be our defence that gives." It didn’t take
him long to see what the problem was.
27/7 Payton’s injury is a
recurrence of the hamstring problem he’s had since we bought him. Could be a chance
for Jepson? Weller might be stopping, as no-one else seems interested.
28/7 Morecambe 1 Burnley 0.
Team: Parks, Moore, Morgan (Winstanley 66), Ford (Jepson 70), Blatherwick Howey 46),
Brass, Little, Williams, Cooke, Henderson (Carr-Lawton 55), Smith. Clarets play a 3-5-2
system with Little and Smith as "wing-backs", Jepson makes a debut after signing
a one year contract and the only goal comes from a free kick in the 52nd minute. Morecambe
had previously lost 6-1 at home to Wigan. Supporters are unhappy, but Ternent says,
"a lot of the fans keep saying it is rubbish, but in all fairness it has been rubbish
for a long time," before descending into waddle territory with, "if they won't
support us I would rather they didn't come – judge me when it is my side. As soon as
I can I will get players if I need them." He also says, "I'm not Merlin with a
magic wand and a hat on my head." Jepson apparently could play in midfield or defence
as well as attack, Ternent knows him well from Bury, and Rochdale were also interested.
Stockport may be after Weller.
29/7 Bolton 5 Burnley 0
is the score in a "behind closed doors friendly." The club reveal they have yet
to appoint a new physio to replace the departed Nick Worth.
30/7 Barrow 1 Burnley XI 1.
Eastwood with the goal. Oldham may also be out to sign Steve Morgan.
31/7 The rumour that Weller may
be moving to a Dutch club starts up again, in which case he shall go for free. Recent
failure waddle moans about not being able to get a club to play for because managers see
him as a threat to their jobs. I suppose someone else might be stupid enough to try it,
but maybe he’s just past it?
