Antiques Roadshow comes
to Burnley
It was the most awful
dream. I dreamt we’d signed 36 year old Tony Ellis, recently released by third
division Rochdale, having fought off the valiant overtures of non league Telford to win
the signature of the lower division journeyman striker. I awoke with a start. What a
relief. I mean, in the cold light of day, naturally it seemed absurd. As if we, who
consider ourselves an established first division club, and who finished the season minutes
away from a premier league play off spot, would bother with such a player. Five years ago,
perhaps, when Ellis was a mere 31 and we were making do in the second division, but we
have moved on, and times have changed.
Alas, of course, I realised it was not a dream.
So welcome, then, 36 year old former Oldham, Bury, Stoke, Blackpool, Preston, Rochdale and
anywhere else striker Tony Ellis. Quite what Stan sees in him surely eludes the rest of
us. This is a man who struggled to get into Rochdale's team last season. Aren't they
supposed to take our cast offs? Isn't that the power relationship?
Okay, I know many's the time you come a cropper
by calling a Ternent decision wrong. And I've been trying to live by the creed that Stan
is always right, so I hesitate to criticise. Often in the past I've doubted his actions,
and events have vindicated him. But this is a test of faith. Ellis is so far away from the
kind of player we want to be signing, he's practically on a different planet. Last week,
when we snapped up Wrexham's McGregor on a Bosman and took young Luigi from Greece, I felt
happy. These were surely the kind of signings we need to be making: young players, perhaps
of promise, who might make the step up. Contrast that with this been there, done that,
bottom division pro.
Ellis joins the squad to go play friendlies in
the Isle of Man. As a new face - okay, an old face in a new place - he isn't alone. He's
joined by Dimitri De Conde, an attacking midfielder who's rattled around a few Belgian
clubs without scoring many goals, now on trial. And they're kept company by two other
triallists: Paul Hughes, ex of Chelsea and now ex of Southampton, and Alan Moore, who
Middlesbrough don't want and who Grimsby have passed on after a trial. Pulses are not
racing. Now, these might be players worth a look. Who knows - one of them might turn out
to have something, albeit something not seen by other managers who will not be fighting
for signatures. After all, if Stan sees something in Ellis, he might find worthwhile
qualities in any of the trio. It's not like we haven't done this sort of thing before
anyway. It's Stan's way of trying to subvert the transfer system. He hopes to get
something for nothing. During the season, any number of Europeans pass through, and in the
summer, the Scott Oakeses of this world get their run outs.
Yet it's hard to resist the feeling that these
players are random flotsam and jetsam, temporarily landed by a casual net as they drift
downstream. A brief stop at Burnley makes a refreshing pause on the road to obscurity.
But I want to feel there's a plan. We finished 7th
in the first division last season, which presents us with a challenge this season. We have
to live up to that. And Ternent has shown himself to be ruthless at getting rid of players
who can't challenge for a regular first team place. Now to replace those players justly
let go, we need new recruits of a higher quality. I'm not sure that you get these by
offering trial games to anyone who turns up with their own boots.
It isn't that we have a bad team. A couple of
good signings now might be what we need to sustain a challenge next time. Tony Ellis is
not what we expect. The key signings of recent years put a spring in our step - the return
of Davis, the capture of Cox, the arrival of Wright, our first million pound transfer -
these fired our imagination, raised our hopes, and, just as importantly, acted as a
statement of intent to our competitors that we were serious. Those signings were public
declarations of ambition. Tony Ellis isn't. The only people whose imaginations are likely
to be sparked are supporters of other local sides, who can have a right laugh at our
expense.
At some point, we are going to have to start
thinking bigger to maintain the momentum. Last season may have been a pleasant surprise,
but it set down a marker of what we can plausibly achieve. We must aim high, and scale up
our aspirations. We have to start thinking and acting like a club that belongs here.
Meanwhile, what a ragbag outfit we are sending
to the Isle of Man. Still, it could be worse. Apparently Ellis has been given a three
month contract. I initially read that as three years! Of course, having landed Taylor and
Ellis, we're still no nearer solving the goalscoring problem that ultimately counted
against us last season. Perhaps in three months time we'll have signed a proper striker
who looks the part playing up front in a good first division team. I wonder what Ian
Helliwell's doing these days?
Now repeat after me: Stan is always right. Stan
is always right. Stan is always right…
Firmo
20 July 2001
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