Burnley FC - The London Clarets - Nothing to Write Home About

In a recent interview with the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Frank Teasdale castigated some of the more critical Claret followers for having short memories and asked us instead to remember the Mullen Glory days. However, some of us have even longer memories than that, and can remember the days when the future of the club was in the hands of the scouts who found youngsters with ability, the coaches who refined them at the Turf Moor finishing school, and the managers who had the courage to play them.

This system gained strength through the rapid promotion of those with ability and potential to first team status, allowing the club to sell off older players who were surplus to requirements. It was not until the ground redevelopment phase took place, that the sales became a necessity to pay off the costs of the re-building programme.

In a period of high inflation in the soccer transfer market, I would have thought it would have been self evident that a club like Burnley, with relatively small gates and no semblance of a Walker/Pickering/Hayward type on the Board willing to bank-roll the club would have to rely to a large extent on producing their own players or at least developing youths rejected from the larger clubs, a technique employed to great effect by fellow Second Division clubs Wrexham and Crewe, and in the First by clubs like Barnsley, Watford, Southend, Tranmere, Grimsby etc.

However at Burnley, this aspect of club operation has gone into sharp decline since the start of the Mullen era, as Mullen has yet to introduce a youth team product into the first team squad and give him a TOTAL of more than ten first team starts. Observe the table below:

Tabulated analysis of the youth policy in the Mullen era as at 3 December 1995

				Under Casper	Under Mullen
Player	Debut	Left	Fee		1991/92	1992/93	1993/94	1994/95	1995/96

Monington	3/89	10/94	Ł50K	35 (2)	2 (3)	22 (9)	16 (4)	0	---
Lancashire	8/91	10/94	Ł55K	1 (2)	9 (15)	2 (1)	0 (1)	0 (1)	---
Mullin	9/93	7/95	Ł45K	N/A	---	---	1 (5)	6 (6)	---
Smith	4/94	N/A	N/A	N/A	---	---	0 (1)	0	0
Dowell	11/94	N/A	N/A	N/A	---	---	---	5	0
Brass	1/95	N/A	N/A	N/A	---	---	---	2 (3)	2 (2)
Borland	9/95	N/A	N/A	N/A	---	---	---	---	1
Weller	12/95	N/A	N/A	N/A	---	---	---	---	1

Total					11 (18)	24 (10)	17 (11)	13 (10)	4 (2)

John Mullin almost made it, and under any other manager would surely have had more opportunities to stake his claim for a more permanent run in the first team. However, Mullin got the message regarding his future prospects and was adamant that he was going to leave the club long before last season ended. Who can blame him for leaving the club given Mullen's record and attitude towards young players? Basically he simply does not give them a chance and plays them usually when there is no other alternative. The policy and practice at Burnley is for youth and potential to give way to age and experience.

The case history of John Mullin illustrates this fully. He made his league debut at the beginning of the 1993/94 season at home against Brighton, replacing John Francis for the final fifteen minutes of a fixture that was over as a contest after Russell had popped in the third goal just after the half time interval. The Seagulls were one of the worst sides that I have ever seen. A sensible manager would have had Mullin stripped and taken off any one of the older players such as Heath, Francis, Eyres etc. to give a young lad a decent run as soon as the clincher went in.

His arrival on the pitch provoked one of the biggest cheers of the night as there are few finer sights at Turf Moor than a Burnley side packed full of young enthusiastic hopefuls, such as the 1981/82 promotion squad where young players like Phelan, Overson, Scott, Steven and Laws formed the backbone of the team. Furthermore Mullin was a Burnley lad, and like most in the ground that night, an out and out Claret. In 15 minutes, played out of position on the right, John turned in a useful spell of play.

However, instead of building on this performance as the start of a phased and systematic introduction to first team football, it was months before Mullin made his full league debut against Swansea in an end of season fixture when the Clarets were desperate for points to gain a play-off place and first choice strikers (Francis, Heath and Philliskirk) were unavailable for selection. In the meantime Mullin had made a smattering of substitute appearances, including Port Vale where he came off the bench and scored the equaliser, and was rewarded by being benched the following week.

If one can think back to this period, Russell and Heath were the microscopic forward line, and it quickly became evident that although he was a skilful enough player, Russell was not the best of finishers. At this point, I firmly believe that Mullin's substitute appearances should have been stepped up leading to a run in the first team, if only to give the boy experience. Instead Mullen reverted to his usual course of action and went to the transfer market to buy Nathan Peel, who made an instant hit scoring two goals against Plymouth in the league, as well as producing a bustling performance against the Spurs rearguard at White Hart Lane in the Coke Cup.

However Peel's opportunities thereafter became very limited but unfortunately, this did not increase Mullin's hopes and neither did the impending departure of Russell, citing family problems for his loss of form. In January 1994, Mullen once again played the transfer market and spent Ł90,000 in order to bring Philliskirk to Turf Moor, blocking Mullin's openings. Philliskirk contributed seven goals during this period but struggled to last 90 minutes, as apparently he had not fully recovered from an injury acquired with his previous club, Peterborough.

Following promotion via the play-offs, with Philliskirk unavailable through injury, Mullen invested Ł250,000 in the half-pint sized Robinson, whose one season in the First Division had resulted in four league goals, all scored against relegated Peterborough. His partner was Heath, creating the infamous Heath - Robinson combo, a gift for opposition defences and journalists, playing with two wingers delivering crosses straight to the heads of the defenders towering behind them. Again this might have been another opportunity to bring in Mullin, but no, Jimmy yet again posed the same solution to the problem and spent Ł75,000 on Big Bad Johnny Gayle following a short loan period. BBJG did make an impact, usually on opposing defenders and on one famous occasion, on Bryan Robson's jaw. Gayle was useful as a target man and I did think that it would have been an idea for the more mobile and skilful Mullin to play off him. However, Gayle soon was dropped and was mainly used as a sub until his abrupt departure brought about by his annoyance at being dropped after scoring at Cambridge.

Mullen then moved Eyres in to the central striker's position to partner Robinson in his famous diamond formation, instead of giving the job to Mullin. This occurred at a time when John had hit two hat tricks in the reserves.

Post Christmas, Burnley were looking desperate, and the desperation resulted in another well used Mullen strategy, the use of loan players. Firstly Saville and then the ultimate in has-beens, Paul Stewart. Luckily the injury to Paul Stewart on his arrival at Burnley gave an opportunity for Mullen to select Mullin for the Watford game, due to lack of any alternatives. He also had Cup games against Liverpool and apparently played quite well. This resulted in the nearest that John came to having a run in the first team, during a period when Mullen steered the team towards equalling the club record for successive defeats in the league created in the 1890's.

That match at Watford was the only time I saw Mullin play a full game, and to me he looked quite handy. The man in charge did not agree, as shortly after Kurt Nogan arrived for Ł300,000 and the final nail in the Mullin coffin was the loan from Arsenal of Paul Shaw, to complete the sad litany of blocked chances and rejection which characterised Mullin's Burnley career.

Mullin reacted by making it quite plain that he was not going to stop at Burnley, and throughout this period prior to his departure he kept a very diplomatic silence about his treatment at Turf Moor, refusing to criticise Mullen. However after his departure he did give vent to some of his feelings without criticising Mullen directly and the impression given was that he was understandably fed up with constantly being passed over and not given a decent opportunity to develop in the first team.

So, having spent just over Ł750,000 on buying centre forwards, and with Mullin out of contract, Sunderland stepped in, and the tribunal ordered the Mackems to pay a measly Ł45,000 down and up to Ł170,000 depending on appearances. Subsequently John has made several first team appearances, as Sunderland find themselves at the right end of the league for a change. His selection has once more been thwarted by an import, this time the purchase of David Kelly from Wolves by Peter Reid. However at least Kelly is a decent player, which is more than can be said for some of those brought in to block him at Turf Moor.

One effect of the failure to introduce younger players to first team football is to deter decent youngsters from signing for Burnley. Note this quote in the Club's own magazine from Leighton James, who made his first team debut at 17.

"Burnley had a reputation for not being afraid to give youth its fling and that was the main reason for choosing them despite being chased by a lot of clubs (eg Spurs, WBA, Leeds and Birmingham City)… but because Burnley gave kids a chance if they felt the were good enough, I chose Turf Moor."

I suppose the Mullen apologists would argue that the club have been successful recently without relying on younger players, however this must surely be only be a short term strategy, the long term aim must be to get the Turf Moor conveyor belt rolling again. Currently the club is littered with players well past their sell-by dates, who are simply blocking up places in the reserves and have little or no second-hand value, so the younger players are not even getting sufficient Pontins league experience to equip them for the step up to the League.

Furthermore Mullen has the amazing knack of demotivating those in the reserves by constantly implying they are not good enough. An injury to more than one defender immediately has Mullen hitting the panic button; note this item culled recently from the Electronic LET

Jimmy Mullen is ready to strike out in the loan market after a devastating double injury blow.

Mullen could be preparing to bolster his squad after injuries to full-backs Chris Vinnicombe and Gary Parkinson.

Added Mullen, 'I am faced with the prospect of losing both my full-backs for the weekend.'

'Coming on top of the forthcoming suspensions to Gerry Harrison and Peter swan, it is a very serious blow for us.'

Mullen confirmed he has 'several targets' in mind and added, 'I will seriously have to look at the loan market and maybe bring at least one player in as cover.'"

Amazing, isn't it? A couple of injuries and a club with a squad of 29 full professionals can't cope. However this outburst summarises the whole Mullen modus operandi in a nutshell: firstly there is the panic, resulting in the kind of outburst quoted above. Secondly there is no thought to the damaging effect that a public statement has on the players already at the club. The potential replacements get a vote of no confidence and those injured / suspended get the message that there is no competition within the club for their places, so certain individuals are guaranteed a place irrespective of their performance Thirdly the answer to problems on the playing side lies in bringing yet more players into the club rather than developing those already there.

The virtual abandonment of any credible youth system is one aspect of poor management on the playing side; there are others too, like the lack of discipline last season, Mullen's parade of feeble excuses, a number of his transfer imports, his away record since the club left Division Four, the way Turf Moor has become a pre retirement staging post for old footballers, selling John Deary and replacing him with Alan Harper / Jamie Hoyland, as well as spending two million pounds on players to achieve relegation.

Just recently the Board have mounted a "Rally round the Flag" campaign via various media, and whilst I cannot condone those who barrack during matches, I can empathise with their frustration when all those concerned with running the club seem intent on denying there is anything wrong with the current state of affairs, and that if only we would cheer a bit louder, things would get better. Sorry Mr Chairman, we just do not buy it, there is a groundswell of people who are upset by the way club is being run, they are fed up and they want a change as, like John Mullin, they see no chance of progression under the current regime.

One wonders if they would be so complacent if it was their own money rather than ours that they had invested in the club ?

As far as I am concerned the only debate should be about the timing, should it be now or the end of the season. As it stands they have not beaten anyone yet in the top half of the table and even the home form is a product of meeting the seven of the bottom eight sides. On present form, the club might just scrape into the play-offs. If they get the rub of the green again, they might meet up with two sides as suicidal as Plymouth and Stockport. If not, the pointers look to yet another year in the basement looking up at the big boys ie Barnsley, Southend, Grimsby, Watford, Tranmere etc.