If you’re a regular visitor to the main Clarets websites, including the official club site, you won’t have been able to help noticing that a growing degree of acrimony has been developing between ‘the club’ and ‘the fans’ in recent weeks and months.
In response to sections of the Turf Moor crowd booing their own team, Stan had a go at the fans after the recent Norwich game, Barry Kilby issued his ‘power without responsibility’ message, and it’s also been reported that ‘a Burnley director’ bemoaned his own fans’ apparently unrealistic expectations when commending the Stockport fans’ contentment with being fed a weekly diet of crap (or beer?), the implication presumably being that we should be thankful for where we are.
This bickering and booing is all rather ironic when you actually do consider where we are – our highest league position and arguably our strongest squad of players, not to mention our best manager and (generally) most competent board of directors, since the Potts glory days. And when you think of all those things, you can understand why many (including Stan) in the management structure wonder just what more it is that the fans could possibly want.
So, at a time when anyone with an ounce of Claret and Blue in his or her blood should be singing, literally and metaphorically, from the same song sheet, I thought it might be a positive act to try and work out what has led to this rather unsavoury standoff.
I am not alone in thinking that the problem began in the week before the Palace away game, when Paul Cook and Andy Payton were summarily loaned out in what (particularly in the absence of a coherent explanation from the club) appeared to many to be a disciplinary act rather than a strategic one. Up to that point, Cook had been arguably our most consistent and influential player in the excellent start to the season, a ‘start’ which lasted more than half a season and saw us amass 40 points from 21 games. From a purely footballing point of view, I think that the virtual absence of Cook (coupled partly with Little’s injuries and wanderings into central midfield) has been a prime reason for the quite remarkable difference in form and results between the two halves of the season, but I think the problem goes deeper than that.
In the heady days of late November / early December, I feel that the Cook / Payton episode was an ill-conceived ploy on Stan’s part to demonstrate to the other players that no-one should get carried away with thoughts of a juicy Premiership contract just yet. However, I believe that the manner in which the loans took effect, and the Byers – style statements issued at the time, caused the ploy to backfire and breed even more uncertainty in the squad as to their future with the club.
You don’t have to be a genius to realise that, when a club gets promoted to the Premiership, a lot of players are likely to be offloaded. So when other players see two senior pros with top level experience slapped on the wrist like that, might they not subconsciously think that it may be better to keep your head down, go through the motions, and at least keep your job in a First Division side for another couple of years? It may be argued that the opposite effect could ensue, and that players would start playing out of their skins after seeing what happened to Cooky and Payts, but pressure affects different people in different ways. Some rise to the occasion, and some bottle out. And I happen to believe that, since early December, some have indeed bottled out, and marginally but perceptibly shunned responsibility on the field.
What has disappointed fans so much, and has led to certain sections to begin actually booing their own team (more of that later), is that the club in general, and Stan in particular, seem to be in a state of clinical denial about a loss of form which is patently clear to anyone else who watches the games. Every single fan would still be happy with our current league position if the run of defeats and draws since Christmas had been inflicted in hard fought games against superior opposition, but they haven’t. They have been capitulations against largely inferior sides, where the only Burnley tactic has been to ‘lump it to Taylor’, irrespective of the state of the pitch. When we were playing our normal game, goals were coming from all over the team, but this new tactic (which must delight teams coming to Turf Moor) has further aided those shirking responsibility, because if you ‘lump it to Taylor’ and don’t move forward, you’ve done your bit. And what have those erudite, ‘we know our football’ fans done when faced with the sight of a striker whose strength is converting crosses from wide players, being forced into a target man role to which he is not suited? Booed him. What utter morons.
Being played out of position is, however, the lot of today’s Burnley player. Graham Branch is not a left back, but let’s boo him anyway. Glen Little is the best right winger in Division One, so let’s allow him to play in central midfield when he feels like it. Ian Moore does not know how to take up goalscoring positions. Andy Payton does. So let’s play Moore in every game anyway. Arthur Gnohere is not a central defender, he’s a left wing back. So when he’s relieved of admirably covering for Davis for months, he’s dropped from the squad rather than taking up the troublesome left back position. Kevin Ball can’t shoot, so we play five across midfield with a lone striker, so as to force Ball into shooting positions. We don’t quite know what Robbie Blake’s worst position is yet so that we can play him there, but he seems to be finding it for himself.
I won’t go into the subject of substitutions.
I’ve been a Clarets fan for more than forty years, and I have never booed a Burnley player, and I never will. I am happy beyond my wildest dreams about the club’s progress since Stan and the new board took over. However, I’d be happier still if I wasn’t being patronised by blinkered people who are telling me to admire the emperor’s new clothes, after a muscle-flexing disciplinary measure backfired horribly and knocked the creativity and confidence out of the side. This isn’t just about Cook and Payton, it’s as much about the unsettling musical chairs being played more out of hope than expectation. I’m not condoning the booing, but people are doing it not because they’re all idiots who will think we’ve failed if we don’t qualify for the Champions League next season, but because they are giving vent to what most other people are feeling – a sense of bewilderment as to how different things have been since mid December, and how largely self-inflicted this is.
Two things need to happen to bring some sort of harmony back to this great club of ours. Firstly, a small but vociferous number of fans need to realise that if they want all their absurdly unrealistic footballing dreams to come true, then they’d be better off reading Roy of The Rovers. And if they want to boo Burnley players, then go and sit with the away fans. Secondly, the management of the club need to abandon their attempts at spin doctoring, and get back to football. We don’t hear much about ‘two points per game’ any more, but it wasn’t the fans who started that one. We’re told that we may have to start ‘lumping it to Taylor’ now because the pitches are so bad, but we’ve been doing that for three months on good pitches as well, because our midfield has bottled out.
And when fans question such things on the official club website, or make constructive suggestions about the club they love, they are patronised beyond belief and told to ‘keep the faith’. A fan (Robert Sawyer) recently put forward an articulate proposal for a ‘singing section’, a subject close to my own heart. He was told that, if he and his mates wanted to sing, they should buy their season tickets on the same day so that they could sit together! The definition of booing is ‘showing disapproval and contempt’. I, for one, cannot see much difference between this asinine and insulting response to a genuine supporter, and booing. The club booing the fans! Mmm …
I’m starting to bicker, but at least I’m not booing. Congratulations to Stan and everyone at the club for a largely marvellous season. I for one would rather not see us limp into the playoffs with the current directionless tactics, let alone limp into the Premiership, which on recent showings would necessitate a 5-5-0 formation at home next season.
Now, Mr Johnson, you did bring your goalkeeping gloves, didn’t you?
