It didn’t take long, did it? Barry Kilby gets booed and the fans that did it are called morons. Regardless of your point of view here, surely it is everyone’s prerogative to make their feelings known, providing they do not step over the line into open abuse and physical intimidation, as this is totally unacceptable regardless of how bad things may be going. The really irritating point here is that some people who report on happenings at the club appear not to believe that people have the right to voice any opinion which differs to theirs. Now they are perfectly entitled to their views on what is happening at Turf Moor at present, just as I am, but the tone of articles sometimes fails to recognise that people have their own views.
What is happening at Burnley at the moment truly perplexes me. This is a club which financially broke even last season, and just missed out on the play-offs with what was a distinctly average pool of players. Yet this season, with promotion seemingly within our capabilities, we have allowed the ITV fiasco to completely undermine our chances. It is of course true that we now have a deficit of £4 million over the next couple of seasons, but is this not true of every club in the Nationwide league? Why is it that we are the only club that is publicly pleading poverty when there are 72 other clubs in the same situation? True, there are always a couple of exceptions with sugar daddies, like Wolves and Portsmouth (now of course universally known as Harry Redknapp’s Pompey in the normal patronising Fleet street manner), but all that comes out of Turf Moor is wailing and gnashing of teeth.
First of all we have Stan’s morale-building proclamation that all his players are on the transfer list, then we move on to the farce that was Marlongate (in which we basically allowed a couple of players to train and keep fit and put themselves in the shop window, whilst we professed to be interested in signing them, when nothing could be further from the truth). Yes, I’m sure that there are people out there that will tell me that we would have signed them if only we had the finances and I’m sure that this would be true, just as I’m sure that we would sign Ronaldo if only we had the finances. The simple truth is that it was a blatant marketing ploy; it gave the supporters false hope of signings, it made people believe that the club was looking forward to the new season with optimism, when nothing could have been further from the truth. It gave false hope, and probably helped sell a few more season tickets. We knew all along that we couldn’t afford to sign them, so why did we bring them in? It is no good saying that Marlon Broomes had no other offers when he came to Turf Moor. Broomes had already turned down Sheffield Wednesday and Grimsby when he arrived on trial. He was obviously hopeful of earning a contract at Burnley; he also knew that he wouldn’t struggle to find a club. Shamefully we kept him on trial with the possibility of him earning a contract, when all along we knew that we would never be able to afford it. We even took him to that godforsaken tournament of the Damned in the Isle of Man. Can anyone blame the guy that he took Preston’s (it’s always bloody Preston) offer of two years rather than our generous offer of 8 weeks with no possibility of it being extended? At least Preston got a fit player, courtesy of Turf Moor.
Then we turn to Marlon Beresford, again a player who would obviously find a club, yet he stated that he would love to rejoin the Clarets. So once again he was with us training, although in all honesty Ternent told him that we couldn’t afford to sign him. So off he went to York in the Third Division on a one month’s loan, leaving us with a dodgy Greek goalkeeper and no bloody hope. Are you trying to tell me that we couldn’t afford to sign him for even a month? Ridiculous. We have quite simply become a laughing stock.
We were closer - closer than we have ever been – to a return to the top flight. But yet again the Burnley tradition of ‘muddling along’ cost us dear. Last season we blew it. Nothing new there: we did exactly the same the season before. The goalless home fixture on December 22 against Millwall gave us our 50th point: after reaching Stan’s apparent safety valve, we proceeded to nosedive and take a miserable 26 points from the next 22 games (W6 D8 L8). True relegation form. It was fortunate, as it was the season before, that we managed to get off to a good start – otherwise we would have struggled like hell. But as is the Burnley way, when all our rivals were strengthening their squads for a promotion push, we decided to muddle along, ride out the storm and hope that we would fall panting over the play-off line. As we all know now, we didn’t; we collapsed totally inches before we breasted the tape.
The signing of David Johnson came too late, and only when Stan suddenly realised that whilst we were in free-fall our rivals continued to move ahead of us. Please don’t mention Robbie Blake as an attempt at strengthening, we would have been better signing a one-legged Morris dancer. Mentioning Blake does bring into play the story that emanated from Bradford – which if true totally sums up Burnley. We allegedly enquired after a fit Robbie Blake in September, but we were put off by the asking price of £750,000. We of course then went back later and signed a crock of the same name for £1 million. It appears that our motto should be (to echo the words of Dickens’ Mr Micawber) ‘Something will turn up’, as this appears to have been the policy that has and will continue to cost us dear season after season.
Barry Kilby does indeed deserve praise. He has brought the club back into the real world with his investment and business sense, but surely this is the time to invest a little further. I don’t advocate pouring endless millions into a bottomless pit, but in the present climate when there are so many quality players available, we sit idly by, bemoaning our terrible luck and wringing our hands. Surely this season was our best chance of reaching the Premiership, with football in such turmoil? I believe that now is the time to show we mean business and strengthen the team with the two or three player we need to challenge. I know it’s easy to spend someone else’s money, and this is simply my opinion. Yet a club like Bradford City £20-30 million in debt (depending on which report you read) and in administration can sign three quality players, including the excellent Paul Evans from Brentford on a free. Why then, can we not do this?
Mr Kilby has stated that money will only be found in an emergency. Without wishing to lower the lifeboat just yet, I firmly believe the iceberg is in sight.
If the unthinkable happened, and we were to end up in an unsuccessful relegation battle, what would happen then? We are no Man City; we could not attract 30,000 in the Second Division. Our crowds have fallen already this season, and we’re only into the third week of the season. It is not cheap to watch Burnley, and people would certainly not pay those prices in the lower league. Attendances would dwindle and so would the club’s finances; any decent players we had would have to be sold off just to survive. It is truly a nightmare scenario, but one which could happen if we continue to feel sorry for ourselves and fail to strengthen the squad.
With regard to the squad, we have a distinctly average pool of players, our goalkeeper is alarmingly fragile and we have no strength in depth. Stan appears to manage as though he is on a computer game – you quite simply cannot play players badly out of position and expect to get results in a quality league against quality players. Poor Mark McGregor waits a season to play consecutive games, and ends up at left back when everybody knows he is a right back. Yet in front of him, on the left side of midfield, is the club’s true left back: Lee Briscoe. It is baffling, sometimes, to try and work out just who is playing where on the pitch. Ternent constantly plays Graham Branch out of position at left back, yet never gives him the opportunity to play in his favoured left wing role. Is it any wonder his confidence is constantly shot to pieces?
Ternent also appears to have lost the famed team spirit that once existed. We constantly hear rumours of back-biting and dressing room fracas, and he has also taken to publicly slamming players, something that he would never have dreamed of at one time.
Our club is in crisis. Yes, ITV have much to answer for, but we must get back to basics. The other clubs are managing to cope, and so should we. It is imperative that all at Turf Moor: Club, players, management and supporters, pull together to ensure that we get through these choppy waters, but ‘muddling along’ will not do any more. The fans have sniffed the big time, and have been told by the chairman that we are one of the top 20 clubs in the country. That is true, so let’s start to act like one and ensure that we don’t slide back to obscurity. This is truly no time for faint hearts. For too long clubs have taken the supporters for granted, now is the time to repay that blind faith.
Carpe Diem.
