Ex
Manchester United youngster signs
Branchy and Camara sign
Fixtures released; youngsters sign deals
Maylett swans off
New Burnley pub opens tomorrow
Driss joins the Royle family
30 June
- another signing!
Earlier
this month, things were looking a bit grim on the signings front. As
June has progressed, though, the situation has decidedly improved.
Shortly
after the good news about Branchy and Mo (see below), the Club announced
the signing of former Manchester United defender Lee Roche. Lee (who
has lots of League experience from a year spent on loan at Wrexham) has
also signed a two-year deal. It's good to see a younger player come to
the club, and we'd like to welcome Lee to Burnley.
Off
the field, the draw for the first round of the League Cup (now the "Carling
Cup") was made. Burnley will start their campaign away at Chesterfield
- not an easy place to go. The match will be played on either Tuesday
12th or Wednesday 13th August (to be confirmed).
Which
brings us nicely to the other main piece of off-field news: shirt sponsors
for next season. The Club announced that Lanway will continue to sponsor
the home shirt, whilst the away shirt will be sponsored by something
called VK Vodka Kick. Judging from the photos on burnleyfootballclub.com,
the home shirt hasn't changed much. The away strip, however, is a different
matter: it's a rather fetching shade of, er, grey! We can already picture
the view at a fog-bound Priestfield:
The
new home shirt will be available from this Friday, 4th July, and the
away shirt from Saturday 9th August (the opening day of the season).
Of course,
it won't be long until we're all looking forward to seeing all our players
in the pre-season friendlies. Burnley have announced the ticket prices
for the two home games, and they are as follows:
Leeds United,
Sunday 27th July (12.00pm kick-off)
Season ticket holders have until Wednesday 16th July to reserve
their seats, after which those unsold will go on general sale. Non-season
ticket seats are available now. Tickets are £10
for adults and £5 for concessions in all areas (wheelchair users
free; helpers £10).
Birmingham
City, Saturday 2nd August (1.00pm kick-off)
Details as for the Leeds game (see above).
They've also confirmed
our away friendly against Accrington Stanley - see our previous news
item below - and don't forget the usual Isle of Man jaunt (Sunday 20th
- Saturday 26th July). For more information on any of the games, please
call the BFC Ticket Office on 0870 443 1914.
In the wider world
of football, debt-ridden Franchise FC have failed in their bid to start
next season in Milton Keynes, and will be back at Selhurst Park for the
foreseeable future. Boo hoo!
We don't have any time
for Franchise FC, but we were disappointed to hear of Oldham Athletic's
continuing problems. Of course, our first priority must be Burnley, but
spare a thought for the Latics. For more information on their struggle
to survive, see their Supporters'
Foundation Trust website. For a wider view of the problems that football
clubs are facing, visit the Clubs
In Crisis website.
We'd like to end by
adding our condolences following the untimely death of Marc-Vivien Foé.
Events like this put things into perspective.
23 June
- excellent news!
Today
has been a good day. First, the Club announced that Branchy has signed
a new two-year deal. Shortly afterwards, the news broke that we've also
signed up ex-Wolves left back Mo Camara, also until June 2005. We now
have a defence!
We
were a little worried about Branchy going elsewhere, and we're delighted
he's decided to stay at Turf Moor. We'd also like to welcome Mo to the
Claret fold.
Talking
of new signings, those of us who've signed up for Burnley's SMS service
were somewhat surprised to receive a text message at 11:40 this morning
informing us that Ronaldo had signed on a three year contract from Real
Madrid. Surprise was quickly followed by irritation as we realised we'd
be charged 25p for the privilege. The Club later put a message on its
website saying that the "story" had been a hoax - surely no-one
believed it? - and that the next message would be free to compensate.
Fair
play to the Club for publishing an apology, though we trust that the
pea-brain who thought this would be an original and amusing thing to
do has been suitably reprimanded.
The
other news from today is that we have another friendly fixture arranged.
This time it's an away game - and it's at the new home of Cooky and Armstrong,
Accrington Stanley.
There
doesn't seem to be anything about it on the official site yet - presumably
they're all too busy compiling "Figo to the Turf" text messages
- but according to Accrington
Stanley FC's official website:
"Stan Ternent
will bring Burnley's first team to the Crown Ground for a pre-season
friendly on Wednesday 30th July, as a thank you gesture to Paul Cook
for the time that he spent at Turf Moor."
The game will kick
off at 7.45pm. See you there!
19 June
- mixed news
First,
the good news. Both Matty O'Neill and Joel Pilkington have signed their
first professional contracts with Burnley. Each players has signed on
for a year. We look forward to seeing them in action next season.
And
talking of which... the bad news! The fixtures were released this morning,
and they don't make appetising reading. Burnley's matches are listed
on burnleyfootballclub.com,
and the Football
League's website, of course, has the whole lot. We'll be putting
the list on our site in due course, but here are a few of the highlights
(and lowlights):
- We
kick off at home to Palace on the 9th August.
This is followed by a tough away game at West Brom,
and then a home match against "Loadsamoney" Wigan.
We then travel to Gillingham on the Bank Holiday Monday -
OK for us, but not too good if you live in Lancashire - and our last
match in August is at home to Crewe. Not the easiest of starts.
- Both our
games against Nottingham Forest are midweek (home
on Tuesday September 16th and away on Wednesday
March 17th).
- We don't go
to Milton Keynes on Saturday September 27th.
- We
have midweek away games at Watford (Tuesday
September 30th) and Ipswich (Tuesday
October 14th) . Again, not good news for the majority of Clarets.
- Our
eagerly-awaited trip to the Roedent's Lair is on Saturday
October 18th. We entertain West Ham at the Turf on Tuesday
March 2nd.
- We
visit the Stadium of Light on Saturday November
29th.
- The
dreaded trip to Cardiff is not until Saturday
17th April.
- The last
game of the season (unless we make the play-offs!), on Sunday
May 9th, sees us at home to Sunderland.
17 June
- still no new signings
Latest
score: 14-0. That is, the number of players to leave Burnley against
the number to arrive. The latest player to leave is Brad Maylett, whom
Burnley have announced will sign tomorrow for Swansea City. Maylett impressed
there on loan last season, and Brian Flynn made no secret of his desire
to sign him permanently. We'd like to wish Brad all the best at his new
club.
As
regards the ever-decreasing number of players who are still at Burnley,
the "Little to Reading" rumours have thankfully died down of
late. However, Graham Branch hasn't yet signed the new contract offered
to him, and apparently has had some other offers. This could just be
bluff - but if Branch goes somewhere else, we really will start to worry
about next season.
The
rumours about new players coming in are still just that: rumours. The
player most likely to sign for us seems to be ex-Wolves defender Mo Camara,
though no doubt Joe Royle will be after him now.
Away
from Turf Moor, the Football League's plans to extend the Division One
play-offs down to the eighth-placed team were scuppered. Barry Kilby
was a supporter of this idea, and to be fair, it's not difficult to see
why, as obviously it might benefit clubs such as Burnley financially.
However, from a sporting perspective, the whole concept of play-offs
seems wrong (1994 included, unfortunately!). No doubt this one will run
and run, and probably manifest itself as an "experiment" lower
down the League.
The
Football League still has plenty to be getting on with, though. At its
recent AGM, chairman Brian Mawhinney proposed some changes to the League's
executive team, plus plans to "re-brand the product". (The "product" being
the Football League. Yuk.) At least they didn't waste any time on trivial
issues, like how to deal with clubs who go into administration to gain
a financial advantage. All that kind of stuff was put on hold until September.
Up
in Burnley, one of the main talking points recently has been the Club's
decision to offer season ticket renewals at the discounted rate until
the end of June, but only for supporters in the Family Stand.
The decision wasn't handled very well - it wasn't announced until after
the original discount period had expired; it wasn't publicised initially,
leading to all kinds of leaks and rumours; and, of course, the offer
hasn't been applied to the other stands. Perhaps next season they'll
just have the discount period run for longer from the outset for all
renewals?
We
must mention Andy Payton's decision to play (on a non-contract basis)
for Unibond Premier team Stalybridge Celtic, where he will line up alongside
another ex-Claret forward, Phil Eastwood. It's hard to know how to feel
about this. Many of us will always be disappointed how Payton's Burnley
career ended, and - with no disrespect to Stalybridge - this man once
played for the Celtic. Still, we'd like to wish Andy all the very
best at his new club. There are sure to be some Clarets taking in a Stalybridge
game once in a while now!
As
all too often recently, we finish on a sombre note, with news of the
death of ex-Claret David Holt. Holt was part of the Burnley squad that
won the 1982 Third Division Championship, and he also won promotion from
the Fourth Division with Bury in 1974. We send our condolences to his
family.
5 June
- new pub, familiar face
Now
for some good news. Simon, previously in charge behind the bar at the
Sparrow Hawk, is opening his own pub - and it will serve real ale!
Previously
The Bridge Inn, the Bridge Bier Huis is situated on Bank Parade. Hydes
will be the main brewery, but guest beers and also foreign beers (both
draught and bottled) will be available. Pie & peas will be available
in the bar on matchdays.
The
Bier Huis opens to the public tomorrow (6th June). If you're in the area,
why not go along?
We're
sure our resident beer boffin, Becko, will be providing a review of the
pub in due course. In the meantime, we'd like to wish Simon all the best
with his new venture. We look forward to sampling the beer in August,
if not before!
4 June
- where have all the players gone?
Ah
- gone to Ipswich, every one. (Or Coventry, or Wigan, or Norwich, or
just about anywhere except Burnley.)
Yes, we all had the
feeling it would happen, but that doesn't make it any better. Diallo
has spurned Burnley's contract offer in favour of two years in Tractorland.
The sequence of events went something like this:
- Early this morning:
Ipswich have their transfer embargo lifted.
- Slightly later:
Diallo becomes Joe "If it had gone in, it would have been a goal" Royle's
first signing as Ipswich boss.
- Curiously, Ipswich's
official website doesn't carry the story until the afternoon,
despite already showing a picture of Driss posing with his new shirt
in an ad for the imaginatively-named Ipswich World.
One can hardly blame
the player - he's just making the decision he feels is best for him,
and there's nothing wrong with that. Two questions spring immediately
to mind, though:
- There is a perception
that some clubs - and we're not specifically targeting Ipswich here
- are using "going into administration" as a means of avoiding
full payment of their debts, only to subsequently have cash to spare
for new signings (player sales notwithstanding). What can be done about
this, so that clubs which avoid the administration route are not indirectly
penalised?
- Why, why, why didn't
Burnley get Driss signed up on a longer contract earlier?
Fresh from reading
the Driss details on Ipswich's site, we had a look at burnleyfootballclub.com to
see if anything had happened up at the Turf. And it had! Apparently,
we've signed...Hollands Pies, to supply next season's half-time fodder.
Fantastic! Can the pies defend? What are they like in goal? Who cares?
Changing tack completely,
the Club's website also carried a news item about Chris Brass, who has
been named player-manager at York City. Unlikely, perhaps, but true!
At only twenty-seven - to us, he'll always seem even younger - he becomes
the Football League's youngest manager. We wish him every success in
what is likely to be a challenging situation.
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