The Longside Reference

Burnley manager 2005/2007

Full Name: Stephen John Cotterill.

D.O.B. : July 20th 1964

Previous Clubs (Player) : Burton Albion,Wimbledon,Bournemouth,Brighton(loan)

Previous Clubs (Manager): Sligo Rovers (Ireland),Cheltenham Town,Stoke City, Burnley.

Steve Cotterill was brought to Burnley from Leicester City to replace the irreplaceable Stan Ternent. He is added to my selection of legends basically because i believe he deserves it. 

Steve Cotterill walked in the door to just 8 first team players (Jenson,Roache,Camara,Blake,Grant,Ian Moore,Branch and Chaplow) and two youth players (Matty O’Neil and Joel Pilkington). That would not be good enough to win any game, so off he went with little money Burnley could afford to give him after the ITV Digital fiasco still hurting the finances of this great club.

John McGreal was the first in the door a freebie from Ipswich Town, Before a ball was yet to be kicked in Steve Cotterill's first season ,McGreal would be joined by Frank”The Power” Sinclair with Micheal Duff costing thirty thousand pounds and a pre-season friendly with Cheltenham Town , Danny Coyne ,and Mich Hyde (who's goal away at Blackburn will go down in the memory for years). were soon to follow through the in door.

His Loan signings were a gamble at the best ,But he unearthed a diamond in the shape of Gary Cahill (On loan from Premiership Aston Villa), England U21 Whittingham joined too for a month. as too did Irish U21 Dean Bowditch and Welsh U21 Richard Duffy . But there was some strange ones too Sanokho who made just three sub appearances. John Oster who left us to play in the Premiership with Reading, Jean Louis Valois who just disappeared of the face of the planet.

That January Burnley spent Erm? Big? (£600k)in the shape of Ade Akinbiyi a centre forward who would become a enigma in a Burnley shirt ! his first start in a Claret shirt lasted just under two minutes ! Getting himself sent off for a forearm smash and an attempted head butt on Sunderland's George McCartney .

Robbie Blake (Burnley's top scorer) was sold to Premiership Birmingham City for £1.75 mil ,after being the subject of a bidding war between Birmingham and Paul Jewell's Wigan athletic ,Richard Chaplow was also sold by Steve Cotterill for a fee of £1.5 mil to West Bromwich Albion. 

This was Steve Cotterill's first season and it WAS a successful season ,we avoided relegation we had two magical cup runs Beating Liverpool (who at the end of the season would be crowned Champions of Europe) , Holding our fierce rivals Blackburn to a draw at the turf and with the help of the eight thousand Fanatical Clarets fans behind them losing marginally by the odd goal in three over at Ewood . Also Aston Villa had been put to the sword at Turf Moor with a mighty 3-1 scoreline.

This is the reason why Steve Cotterill makes it into a Legends category ( BYMOTP he just might have been )

If his first season was a success, his second wasn't, The team stagnated ! no cup runs to talk off ,beaten by Derby in the FA Cup while Aston Villa took revenge by beating us in the League cup .

His signings were still a big talking point though, Wade Elliott and Gareth O'Connor were signed from Bournemouth after impressing in the FA Cup game at Turf Moor the Previous year ,Gifton Noel-Williams was brought in from Stoke to accompany Ade Akinbiyi up front after the departure of Ian Moore moore moore to Leeds . Former Arsenal youth Players  John Spicer (also from Bournemouth for £25k ),and Danny Karbasiyoon direct from the Gunners youth team joined the Clarets.

John Harley was signed from Sheff Utd ,Who unfortunately never totally won over the Claret faithful. Loan signings were again at best a gamble Lee Grant a England U21 goalkeeper from Derby who played just one game ?, Karl Bermingham, Nathan Dyer, Phil Bardsley, Keith Lowe and former England fat boy Micheal Ricketts were all brought in during the season.

The success this season came in the shape of two youth players Kyle Lafferty and Chris McCann and the Sunderland reserve striker Andy Gray .Steve Cotterill also brought in Alan Mahon but has spent most of his time at Burnley injured!

The season was more miss than hit when Burnley beat Stoke City on Boxing Day they went on to win only THREE more League games that season .

Steve Cotterill sold Ade Akinbiyi to Sheff Utd for £1.75 million in January ,this was the second successive season that burnley sold their top Goalscorer in January!

We finished the season in 17th place 4 places below Steve Cotterill's first season.

 “Cotterball” as the fans labelled his long ball technique was now in full flow ,and with the start of his third season almost upon us ,little confidence was raised for the Carets fans who could not see an end to this long tunnel. 

On the bight side we didn’t sell our Top Goalscorer in January and we did buy back a rather bulked up Ade Akinbiyi ,Ade on his return looked more an extra from the World Wrestling Foundation than a former Premiership Footballer. Andy Gray who had been a revelation since his rescue from Sunderland reserves got himself injured at home to a cynical Leeds United outfit. and was out for nine league games ,and the general consensus was that he was brought back into the fold way too early.

If you thought the end of 2005-06 season was bad just three wins in FIVE months .This somehow was worse Steve Cotterill managed a team who did not win a single game in 19 !! . And to the total amazement of a section of the supporters still kept his job. We did finish the season well winning five out of the last eight. Saving us from the very real prospect of relegation. 

Steve “Cotterball” Cotterill’s signings were starting to fail as well .A winger ( strange description of for the ferret looking)Steve Jones who looked the business in his first game scoring twice on his home league debut ,but that was his peak (He peaked way too soon) .Steve Foster a centre half was also signed (but only made 7 starts) .Panic set in towards our descent into the relegation places .So Steve Cotterill brought back  Ade again, Joey Gudjohnson , Steve Caldwell(who became team captain) ,Mike Pollit on loan from Premiership Wigan, centre half Coughlen from Sheff Wed, Paul McVeigh from Norwich and a Superstar in the form of Eric Djemba Djemba, who was the catalyst in saving Burnley from the drop. The season ended with Burnley yet again finishing in the bottom half. 15th was an improvement but the 19 game win less run that Steve Cotterill took us through was enough for most supporters to lose the faith. 

So 2007-08 started with the Manager upset with the Boards “Premiership Pledge” campaign ,he thought that too much pressure would be put on his team. (Well you would wouldn't you 13th 17th and 15th position finishing the previous seasons ).The oman's didn’t look good.

Gabor Kiraly a Hungarian with stupid pants was his reaction to losing injury prone Danny Coyne, Besart Berisha was signed for £340.000 after a fantastic display against the England B side what featured players such as Micheal Owen, Besart sponsored by the posters of thelongside web site , Has yet to feature in the first team ! at the time of writing (May2008),David Unsworth was also brought in, as Steve Cotterill’s team was getting older and older , another of Steve Cotteril's signings was left back Steven Jordan from premiership Manchester City.

A stunning victory on the opening day against possibly the finest team in the division (West Brom) Was a bit uncharacteristic as the rot had well and truly set in ,His selection process was being constantly questioned .His success from his first two seasons were now imprisoned in the archives of the history shelves .Steve Cotterill just seemed to run out of ideas ,his final game a cringe worthy one nil defeat by Hull City was enough for his most loyal followers.

He left a day after  the Hull City debacle through mutual consent, so mutual he attended the press conference where it was to be announced Steve Cotterill's links with Burnley had been severed.

Steve Cotterill who's playing career was ended early by injury, found solace in management , replacing Laurie Sanchez at Sligo Rovers over in Ireland his first managerial job, He then took the reigns of Cheltenham Town where he stayed for 5 years taking them from Southern Premier League to the Football League a remarkable feat ,this made Stoke City sit up and take notice ,the Icelandic owners hired Steve Cotterill ,although he was only thier for thirteen games and subsequently walked out in unceremonious circumstances ,he then joined Howard Wilkinson as a No2 at Sunderland in an ill fated match up which saw Sunderland relegated and Steve Cotterill Sacked.

Sacked and jobless Steve Cotterill turned his hand to coaching this time at Leicester city , that’s where Barry Kilby found him ,and the rest as they say is history .