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Weekly-ish round-up, 28 May
Weekly-ish round-up, 18 May
Weekly-ish round-up, 12 May
Boring, pointless match announced
Taylor call-up
Click here for May 2002 comment entries
28 May - Almost a weekly-ish round-up
Okay, here's the next almost weekly round-up. Not that there's much to say...
Stan admitted that we might need to sell to make up for the hole in our finances left by the ITV defaulters. Fair enough, but you do wonder who would buy. All our fellow Football League clubs are in the same boat, and many have been left worse off than us. There isn't exactly a lot of spare cash floating around right now, so it's a buyer's market, and prices will not be high. Arguably, we don't have anyone particularly tempting for Premier League clubs either. Perhaps only Little and Gnohere would move for significant amounts of money, although they would both be risky signings - Little seems prone to injuries while Gnohere is still inexperienced. As for our other cash signings - Blake, Cox, Davis, Grant, Papadopoulos and Ian Moore - it's hard to see us getting back the money we paid for them. The financial climate is different from the one when we bought these players. Meanwhile, the continued uncertainty casts a pall over summer speculation. I have never known a time in the internet so bereft of juicy rumour as this. At the moment, it seems we can't even pursue Marlon or Johnson until we know what's happening.
Still, Gordon Armstrong agreed his inexplicable new contract. Dean West should be offered one soon. There was some speculation that Gascoigne might be offered a week to week contract, but why? Given that it hasn't worked out, surely a clean break would be better.
Papa the Greek's Swiss sojourn was less than successful. Having played in their first game, which they lost, he was left out in their second game against France, which they also lost, but recalled in their last game against the Czech Republic, which they drew 1-1. Papadopoulos didn't score. To be fair, this is a high level of competition; with only eight teams in it, it's effectively the European quarter final stage - and England went out too. Papa will apparently soon be too old to go on any more Under 21 jaunts, so will be able to concentrate on winning a place in the first 16.
Looking to the future, we welcomed four scholars to the Turf this week. They're defender Gary Carter from London, midfielder Adam Jones from Rhyl, defender Daniel Pitham from Coventry and defender Ryan Townsend from Perth, Australia. Blimey, we can remember not so long ago when they always came form Burnley and Accrington. It looks like we're spreading our net a bit further these days. But we do like defenders. We welcome all four to the club. Meanwhile, from the past, Andy Farrell proved he's still a Claret by coming back to the club to work alongside Ged Harrison and Vince Overson as a Regional Manager in the community programme.
Bradford City seem to make people redundant on an almost daily basis, but by far the most shocking was the sacking of 19 players, including big names like Carbone, Cadamarteri, Jess and Ward. Presumably injured Robbie Blake would have been name number 20 on the list if we hadn't signed him for a £1,000,000 in January. Lucky boy. Personally, if this is the start of a hefty dose of financial realism, I welcome it. None of us are immune from change in our working lives, so why should footballers get special treatment?
Bit of a parochial point next, but congratulations to London Clarets Chairman Steve Corrigan on being elected Chairman of APFSCIL at their AGM last night. APFSCIL is the Association of Provincial Football Supporters Clubs in London, a membership organisation of the various London-based supporters clubs of teams outside Greater London. APFSCIL is said to represent some 8,000 Southern-based football supporters, and encourages co-operation between different supporters and travel to games. The London Clarets have always played an active role in APFSCIL, so hats off to Chairman Cozzo!
Finally, I got my new home shirt last week. The online club shop is, it must be said, extremely fast and efficient. The shirts were released on a Wednesday, and both me and a mate took delivery of ours on the Thursday. That's the good news. Unfortunately I don't think it's a great shirt, with this weird herringbone design and a fussy, flimsy collar. All in all, it's a bit of a design mish mash, lacking the simplicity and unity of the last two seasons' shirts. But you must make your own mind up. What concerns me is the thoughtful card that came attached to the shirt, inviting me to fill out my details and return it to the club to enter a monthly prize draw. Good to see the club using a bit of initiative to build up its marketing base. Bit disappointing that they can't spell the name of our ground right, though. Yes, you're invited to send the card back to 'Clarets Superstore, Turf Moore, Harry Potts Way'. Perhaps they've got Alan and Ian on the brain. But is it too much to hope that someone might proof-read these things?
18 May - Weekly-ish round-up
Here's the second of our sort of weekly summer round-ups...
NTG won his 14th and 15th caps
for Greece, in both games coming on at half time. For the first, they beat Romania 3-2, although it was 1-0 when
Michopoulos came on. He kept a clean sheet in the second game however, which was a friendly in all senses of the word
against Cyprus. Greece were 2-1 up at half time and went on to win 3-1. It remains to be seen whether Nik has done enough
to win a place in the squad for forthcoming Euro 2004 qualifiers. For now, he has followed in the recent footsteps of
Phil Gray, Ian Cox and Gareth Taylor in becoming a Claret international. Disappointingly, however, we didn't get two in a
week, as Gareth Taylor didn’t
figure in Wales’ excellent 1-0 win over Germany. Surely a late substitution would have been in order?
At under 21 level, NTG's compatriot, the elusive Dimitri
Papadopoulos, played for Greece in the UEFA competition thingy in Switzerland,
but they lost 2-1 to Belgium. Apparently Channel Tits (AKA Channel Five) are showing highlights from these games, so
if you want to find out what Papa looks like and whether he's a good player, tune in between all the soft porn.
Click here for coverage from the UEFA website.
The new kits for next
season were revealed. Apparently the supporters’ clubs agreed a bit back that new home and away shirts would be produced
every season to make cash. Hope that’s okay with everyone. Photos of the 'new shirts for a new future' are on the official
website, so there’s no point reproducing them. To take a gander, go there by
clicking here.
As you’ll see, the home shirt has a collar, which personally I’m not a fan of, but at least it’s still Claret and Blue
and not in quarters or anything. It looks a bit 80s retro, we think, and while not the worst Burnley shirt – and they’ve
been some bad ‘uns – it feels a bit of a retrograde step after the really nice, highly traditional shirts of the last two
years.
The away shirt is a real departure. We normally get something white, but this one’s navy blue. Personally I like it,
particularly the V neck, and providing the home colours stay the same, there’s no reason why we can’t experiment a bit
away. Apparently it's based on the shirt worn in the 1947 FA Cup Final. Shorts are thankfully white for the home and
curiously sky blue for away.
It's all made by TFG Sports, with which the club has signed a three year contract. TFG sports recently took over our
existing manufacturers Super League, but Burnley figures Frank Casper and Joyce Pickles are still involved, and the
fabric is apparently even made locally. Doubtless it's a revolutionary fabric, as football shirts are always made out
of that these days.
Home shirts go on sale soon and can be ordered now from BFC website -
click here.
They're the same price as last year! Still here? What are you waiting for? Go there. Buy a shirt. Give the club some
money. Be one of the first to show it off in public. Be the smartest kid in the street. Go on.
Away shirts will become available in July.
The club announced that 19 supporters were given life
bans from Turf Moor following convictions for football-related offences.
More than 150 are apparently now banned. Bans were given out for a variety of offences, including affray, assault,
racist chanting, threatening behaviour and drunken behaviour. I don't see how anyone could argue with bans for racist
chanting, although incredibly the BNP showed how detached with reality they are by trying to do just that.
Personal comment.
It’s that ‘drunken behaviour’ that gives rise to some concern, though. Obviously it’s impossible to comment on the
particular circumstances of the offences for which these bans are given, but many of us at some time or another will
have broken the law by virtue of entering a football ground while intoxicated. It is a crime, and it does constitute an
arrestable offence. I hope the offences in those cases are sufficiently serious to merit a life ban. The sap who streaked
during the Preston home match has also landed a life ban, and that seems very harsh. I could go on - but I think this
needs a properly thought out article.
Not strictly anything much to do with Burnley, but Bradford City
went into administration! Clearly, this is horrible for the supporters and
we wouldn't wish it on anybody, but permit us if we enjoy a small, smug laugh. Bradford's most famous player Geoffrey
Richmond spends a lot of his time trying to restructure football to benefit a few clubs, and now we know why. Perhaps
if he'd spent a bit less time making a name for himself by trying to carve up the game and a bit more worrying about
Bradford City they'd be in a better state now?
By the way, have we paid them all that was due for Robbie
Blake?
Richmond did reveal, with typical headline-hugging candour, that 17 First Division clubs responded positively
when he wrote to them with the suggestion that the Old
Firm clubs join the English league. Could Burnley FC make public what
their response was? Thankfully the FA showed a bit of common sense and said that they would never sanction
such a trans-national move. Now can this be the end of it, please?
Finally for now, it was announced that Burnley supporters eat more
Holland’s pies than
anyone else. Of the various grounds Holland’s are sold at – including Bolton, Southampton and Delia’s Darlings –
none can compare with the 3,500 sold on the average matchday at Turf Moor. That means one person in every four eats
a pie, although of course, some of us have two. Hats off to all the pie eaters of Burnley for putting us top of this
most prestigious of competitions. Who needs the play-offs when you got the Holland’s accolade?
Now, I wonder what happened to those balti pies we were promised last year?
12 May - Weekly micro-news round-up
During the summer we'll probably update this section once a week or so just to maintain the record. In truth, little is happening, and personally, we're enjoying the break. Anyway, here we go...
Three youth team players were given professional contracts. Congratulations to Earl Davis, Andrew Leeson and Andrew Waine, and here's hoping they manage to make it all the way to the first team. All Clarets weaned on the knowledge of what we once achieved would love to see home grown players coming through, while in these financially troubled times developing your own talent seems ever more important. Oddly enough, we do seem to recall reading this news a few weeks before it was officially announced, on the Clarets Mad website, but there you go.
Speaking of which, our friends at Clarets Mad put together a really nice collection to commemorate the 15th anniversary of The Orient Game. If you haven't already read it, click here to view the latest addition to the history of this pivotal match.
We must congratulate Cheltenham on winning the Third Division play-offs. Of the two sides, they had an ex-Burnley player in Mark Yates, and now our FA Cup defeat at their hands doesn't look that embarrassing, so on that basis they had our support. Brentford messed up their final, so unfortunately it's Stoke rather than West London for us next season, which is extremely disappointing from our point of view. Ah well, at least we can say (through gritted teeth) congratulations to former Claret Andy Cooke on returning to the First Division.
Ex-Clarets have been in the news quite a bit recently, with Lee Dixon retiring after Arsenal's Double triumph. He should have played much more for Burnley, but those were troubled times. We hope he enjoys his retirement.
Well done to Birmingham too for winning promotion to the Premier League through the play-off final penalty shoot out. Our support for them was based on the view that it would simply have been too agonising for Norwich, who only scraped into the play-offs because we cocked it up, to be playing in the Premier League next season. That, and we want to go to the Fat Cat again.
I watched the game on ITV 1, but must have missed their explanation for why the game wasn't being shown as planned on the
ITV Sport channel. Still, it was interesting to hear the commentator refer a number of times to the financial value of
promotion to the Premier League. Well quite, particularly these days, particularly after what ITV have done.
So, we now know the identity of the 23 teams we will be playing against in the First Division next season? Or do we? No sooner has the season ended than the spivs and cowboys who run certain League clubs revived the idea that Celtic and Rangers will join the English league. This is a preposterous suggestion that will do nothing to address the serious problems football should be facing. We could go on, but we feel an article coming on...
Oh, and Andy - sorry, Andrew - Cole announced his retirement from international football. Ah bless, always the last to know.
Did he not realise that international football retired from him some time previously? Good career move, Andy.
With the season having ended early and so much uncertainty ahead - we don't know how much money we'll have for next
season, or what represents good value in the transfer market anymore, or even how many teams will be in the division
next season - it's been a strange few weeks. Apparently Robbie Blake
was injured all along! Who'd have thought? That aside, there's plenty of the usual transfer and other speculation, but we await any definite news, apart from the promise that new kits will be announced on Monday. We can hardly wait...
See you next weekend.
2 May - Pointless, boring match announced
Yawn. As if this summer, stretching seemingly infinitely before us wasn't boring enough, a tedious pre-season friendly was announced today. Yes, following the excitement of the Isle of Man Steam Packet 'International' Tournament away, we have the thrilling prospect of a match against Premier League opposition. Except it's at home. And it's against Bolton. Yes, technically they are Premier League opposition, but be honest, if someone told you we were playing a Premier League side, you'd think of them last, wouldn't you? Shades, isn't it, of those now fast-receding times when Coventry City hung around the top flight and so when we picked up one of their rejects we were said to be signing a 'Premier League player'. Still, I suppose we should at least be grateful it's not KK Man City or bloody West Brom. We bang on about this enough on this site, I know, but what is the point of pre-season friendlies if we don't encounter interesting opposition or play in new places? But instead, roughly a year and a half since they last came to the Turf for League points, it's Bolton at home again. It's clear that, apart from the Isle of Man, Stan thinks there's no place like home. But really, don't we get to go there enough anyway? Ah well, if you're interested, get a life. Nah, seriously, if you are interested, it's on Wednesday 31 July, with a 7.45 kick off. And Stan will make 11 substitutions.
By the way, congratulations to Birmingham on making the play-off final. Don't take this the wrong way - I've nothing in
particular against Millwall (apart from their substantial minority of yob supporters) - but the New Den is my nearest First Division ground. Now, if they could beat Norwich in the final, we
all get to go drinking in the Fat Cat next season - so come on Blues!
2 May - Taylor made for international success?... Oh, I don't know, make your own headline up.
We'd been hoping to get to Cardiff in May, and at least one Claret has now.
Bonnets off for Gareth Taylor, who has once again been selected for the Wales international squad to play Germany in Cardiff on 14 May. It's a fitting reward for a good, if unappreciated, season for Burnley. Taylor got his eighth cap for Wales, and first as a Claret, when he came on as a sub in their draw against the Czech Republic last month, so here's to the ninth. It's easy to get blasé about these international call ups these days, with Michopoulos having been called up for Greece earlier in the week, but we did go 16 years without having an international in the ranks, so this is all a sign of the club's progress.
Meanwhile, I know we're biased, but well done for Brentford and Stoke for getting to the second division play-offs. No right thinking person can ever want to go to Ninian Park, and as long as Brentford win the final, we'll all be happy. Commiserations to Wolves, who have now passed us in the 'blowing it' stakes.
May 2002 comment entries
FA says yes to franchised football
Online club shop!
Singing songs means nothing?
After the elections
Shock retirement from international football!
An apology to Wolves
June 2002 news and comment archive
Archive main menu
As with all articles on the site, the
views expressed in this section are those of the individual contributor, and do not
necessarily reflect the view of the Burnley FC London Supporters Club.
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