The Longside Reference

CLARET PENSIONER
JANUARY 2009
Part One

WILL ANYONE BE SOLD? There seems to be this worry that the January window will see a Burnley player sold. It’s not a worry I share. I actually think we kid ourselves at the moment that we have players that other clubs would offer big money for. It was always a mystery to me that the limited Lafferty was sold for such a large sum, him being so limited. But feeling seems to be that McCann will be the next to go. What really needs to happen that high earners are offloaded… Kirally and Akinbiyi for starters. The Kiraly situation is just ridiculous.  Between them they take £15,000 a week from the player budget, plus other add-ons. That’s a staggering £800,000 a year on just two players who rarely feature. You could argue I suppose that Akinbiyi has repaid his wages with the goal he scored at Chelsea but since then he has hardly put in an appearance and his day is done. Mahon is another. There was a comment on a messageboard at the end of December that he deserves a run in the team to show what he can do. Seems to me he has had several seasons at various clubs to show what he can do. Sadly it doesn’t amount to much. It is reasonable to assume that with Steve Cotterill famously describing him as the jewel in the crown, he too will be on a substantial wage. All these three players should be gone in the summer. 

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PLAYERS GONE? There were only 17 players available for the QPR Cup game and one of those who played had more or less returned immediately from 2 months injury absence. Two were absent suspended, and four more injured. And where is the Dutchman?  Owen Coyle scours the fringe players from other clubs in the hunt for the elusive right back.  No other club can have been looking for a right back for as long as Burnley. At QPR Duff was switched to centre back and showed again this is his best position. Elliot was in centre midfield. By all accounts this was a game so bad, so boring, so featureless; it compared with anything from the Cotterill era, although this from the Burnley viewpoint was probably down to a lack of available players rather than style or tactics, or maybe even players playing at walking pace so as to avoid a yellow card that might have put them out of the Tottenham game. The last time QPR won an FA Cup tie was eight years ago and Bill Clinton was still President of the USA.
     The O – O draw brings the game back to Turf Moor and an attendance of probably well below the 8,000 that jeered the teams off the pitch at Loftus Road, unless the club comes up with some kind of incentive. Harry Redknapp watched the game to plan and plot how to beat Burnley. He would have gone away wondering just how this lot beat Chelsea and Arsenal, that’s for sure. If McCann and McDonald are miraculously fit for Tottenham he will probably find out just how we did it.
     At least the 0 – 0 draw belayed our fears that the bubble has well and truly burst and QPR would find us easy meat. And a 0 – 0 draw is now a rare event where Burnley are concerned this season.

IN THE MEDIA AGAIN as the Spurs Carling games edge closer. Two articles I saw on Sunday the 4th were a piece about Jensen in the Times and one about Eagles in the Mirror. Eagles apparently entertains hopes that Ferguson may one day elect to take him back to Old Trafford and that in the sale contract Fergie has first refusal to take him back to Manchester. If Fergie saw that last minute free kick he took against Barnsley at Christmas a return to Old Trafford seems very unlikely. Eagles meanwhile is a self confessed Spurs fan hailing from that part of the world and this is one game we all wish that he has a stormer.
     Old ‘arry at White Hart lane is trying to bring Defoe back from Portsmouth. This sale illustrates perhaps above all others how crazy the world of football is. Defoe went to Portsmouth only a year ago when Redknapp was manager. Now he has expressed a keenness to take him back to Tottenham. So, Defoe phoned in sick the day before the FA Cup weekend and was unable to play on the Saturday. Portsmouth not entirely convinced sent their club doctor round to investigate. Defoe in the Sundays then expressed surprise that he is now receiving death threats on his phone. Funny too how Stewart Downing banged in a transfer request up at Middlesbrough only a year after signing a new 5 year contract… funny how he does this knowing that Tottenham want to sign him. 
     On a more pleasant note I read in the piece about Jensen that his wife is an air hostess on Monarch airlines. Jensen methinks lives in the real world. In this world the wife has to work to supplement the family income, and a wag is not a wife covered in bling, but something the family dog does with its tail. What came across strongly in the Jensen piece is that he more than deserves his 15 minutes of fame and place in the sun this season.

TOTTENHAM AWAY: On the day of the game my head was saying this is where it all comes to an end tonight; it’s been great while it’s lasted but how can a little club like Burnley with such limited resources continue to beat these super-rich clubs and their player resources. Ralph Coates featured on SKY predicted 2 – 0 to Spurs. Carling Cup Final and league points for Spurs, plus promotion for Burnley would make him a happy man, he said. If his 2 – 0 prediction is correct then there still remains the small chance that Burnley might win 2 – 0 in the second leg.
     I fear, however, that a score of 3 – 0 is more likely. Anything more than that and it makes the second game a mere formality. I bought four newspapers in the morning to read the build-up and had SKY sports news on all day. The more the day wore on and the nearer it got to kick-off the more it appeared on the screen. The level of Press coverage and TV exposure has seemed quite surreal.
     History says that we have a decent record against Tottenham, until the matches that matter, the FA Cup semi final in 1961 and the Cup Final itself in ’62. But in the League Cup there was the marvellous 4 – 1 win at White Hart Lane in the early 80s and then the 2 – 1 win at Turf Moor under Stan Ternent. SKY featured a coach load of Burnley supporters and interviewed a few of them as they waited.

THE GUT FEELING WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG:
“Just blown away by a virtuoso second half performance” said the Sky commentator as four goals rained in; Jensen of all people gifting the second, poor marking gifting the first from a deep corner, statuesque defending gifting the third and an own goal for the fourth. It doesn’t get much worse than that and the second leg must surely be no more than a formality. “Self inflicted”, said Owen Coyle. Or was he just out-foxed by Redknapp who made a crucial half time change.
     And all this was after Burnley’s own mesmerising display in the first half when the early goal by Paterson set them up for 45 minutes of absolutely first class football. Put purple striped shirts on them and this really could have been Barcelona. Both Redknapp and Roy Hodgson were unstinting in their praise.
     “Triffic” said ‘arry. But in truth it was Harry’s half time team talk and single team change that was just as triffic as anything Burnley did in the first half, and I think we all knew that there was no way that Burnley would be able to maintain that same magnificent standard of tempo, passing and sharpness for another 45 minutes. The word sublime would not have been inappropriate to describe it, when if we’d worn purple striped shirts it could have been Barcelona we were watching. If Eagles (along with others) faded in the second half, what he demonstrated in the first was that his true place is on the right wing where his running and crosses could have brought more goals. But what was also amply demonstrated was that the necessary strength in depth on the bench was just not there, leaving no way of counter-acting Tottenham’s comeback. It was all just too much.  
     I spoke to the other Dave Thomas 24 hours later and he was ecstatic about Burnley’s performance. “This is how football should be played,” he said. He particularly picked out Elliot in midfield for praise. He had spoken to Harry Redknapp on the morning of the game and said that Redknapp was wary of Burnley, thought they were a good side, and knew they would have a tough game. I’ve spoken to Dave many times about football and this time he said he just couldn’t believe what he was seeing, it was so good. And yes he thought the final scoreline was undeserved. “It was Jimmy Greaves who said that football is a game of two halves” and this was a classic example.
     Defoe was paraded on the pitch before the game. God knows who chooses his clothes but he wore an outfit and cap that made him look like Oliver Twist. A day or so later the Sun allegedly reported he wanted a loyalty payment from Portsmouth. Yes the word was LOYALTY. This he was able to do because he had not officially asked for a transfer. No, he just phoned in sick apparently. Who was asking – him or his agent – does it matter? The mere notion of it adds to the general picture of the obscenity of Premiership life today.

THE GREAT EAGLES DEBATE: Just how good is he? The questions remain. The puzzle continues. He has scored goals and made goals. When this happens the publicity is huge. As an ex Man U starlet the spotlight will be on him in every game. The Times report on the game had this to say (although I’m not sure if Eagles actually nutmegged Gareth Bales):

     “A three-goal defeat was harsh on the visiting team, although they contributed to their own downfall with some shambolic defending. It had been a different story in the first half when Chris Eagles demonstrated why he was once one of the most highly rated youngsters at Manchester United, before going on to show in the second half why he now plays for Burnley.
     With his headband, designer jewellery and flashy green boots, Eagles seems to style himself as the Cristiano Ronaldo of the lower leagues –     either that or an off duty hairdresser – but he soon lived up to the former billing by showing off skills similar to those of his former team-mate to create Burnley’s goal in the fifteenth minute.
      (Ronaldo meanwhile wrote off his FERRARI in Manchester. Who in their right mind buys a Ferrari to drive round Manchester? He escaped injury it is said by diving.)    
     Eagles ghosted past Bentley and then ran towards Gareth Bales nutmegging the Wales international in the penalty area and crossing for Paterson to tap in at the far post. Having created one goal with his right foot Eagles went on to demonstrate that he is equally adept with his left, cutting in to cross from the right for Robbie Blake to head narrowly wide.”
     
IS IT ALL JUST TOO MUCH TO ASK?
    They say there’s nothing like having another game quickly to expunge the memory of a bad defeat. With Swansea in the League and QPR in the Cup within days of Spurs, and both games in the space of 4 days, the way was there to lick wounds, re-group, and get back on track; a League win cementing the top six place and a Cup win restoring optimism. And that was even before you began to remember that the Wembley place is not entirely lost just yet.
     Just suppose… you begin to think, like the universal ever-optimistic football supporter always does… an early goal… then another with 30 minutes to go… the crowd roaring… Spurs panicking… anything can happen.
     
IT IS POST CHRISTMAS AND NORMAL SERVICE HAS BEEN RESUMED:
     The game against Swansea seems a good one to end this part of the diary with – on a note of gloom and frustration. In a word, this performance was dire and wimpish (whoops that’s two words), and one has to say it is not all the fault of the players. At Spurs we had Elliot in central midfield, playing so well that Burnley legend Dave Thomas (the real one) picked him out as terrific. We had Eagles wide right which is his best position, running riot. Today we yet again had the attempt to accommodate them both by having Eagles wide left, so that Elliot can play wide right.
     The intention may well be a 4 4 2 formation but in effect it becomes a very weak 4 2 4. Tonight the central midfield was inadequate and totally overrun by a good (though not brilliant) pacey Swansea side that more or less did to us what we did to Spurs in the first half at White Hart Lane. Up front we had little Paterson repeatedly trying to win headed balls punted down from Jensen’s towering goal-kicks, and Blake trying to – well you tell me cos I sure don’t know whether he was one of a front two, or one of a midfield five. I can’t think of one single shot on target, I can’t think of one flowing move, I can only think of one near miss when Eagles (from the right please note) whipped in a curling cross which just eluded the jet-heeled Paterson who came sliding in at the speed of light. And I haven’t mentioned yet a defence that looks now as brittle as glass and slow as a bus. And just when Duff is back in his best position, he scores an og in one game and gets a red card in the next.
     What is abundantly obvious too; is that the early good spell in the season when we piled up the points was achieved with Thompson up front and Alexander in a role where he played in front of, and protecting the back four. If Jensen is going to continue to punt long high kicks up the field then Thompson must play. If Thompson plays up front, and Alexander plays in his protective role, then what is abundantly clear is that you CANNOT play all of Blake, Eagles, Elliot and Paterson. At the risk of being repetitive, if you play all of them you effectively have a front four, and only two in midfield. The days of having just two (eg Brian O Neil and Gordon Harris) in midfield are long gone. We have according to experts, played this formation on six occasions this season, and lost five of them. Blake desperately (on the evidence of this game) needs a rest or some phyllosan. A choice has to be made between Eagles and Elliot unless you put Elliot in central midfield.
     Of Elliot and Eagles, Elliot is the better crosser of a ball and can beat his man more consistently. Eagles and Blake thus become the sacrificial lambs. And all this pre-supposes that all the above are available for selection. We have yet to mention the red and yellow cards that we see waved at Burnley players with alarming frequency. Today it was Duff for the club’s seventh, yes SEVENTH red card of the season. He didn’t actually wrestle his man to the ground, as he crisply tackled and won the ball, but the referee decided there was some minimal, almost negligible, holding. If any player who had played in the seventies and before, had seen this sending off, they would have been simply astonished. Once sent off, the game was as good as over when the penalty was put away efficiently by a man with dreadlocks from Trinidad, called Scotland.
     So, that’s two pens and two red cards in the last two league games. We have lost three league games on the bounce and haven’t won now in five. This, one and all, is the stuff of nightmares.   
     I sat through this evening of dross wondering just what had happened to the passion and the energy levels and determination of the performances I saw away at Chelsea and at home to Arsenal.
     Burnley 0 versus Swansea 2: worrying, and not just because of what we saw on the field. Behind the scenes the club has no money. The month is nearly halfway through and there is not a hint of a loan signing. Yes indeed, the euphoria of Chelsea and Arsenal seems a long, long way away. There were probably 6000 people there tonight benefiting from the free ticket offer. It was an astonishing sight when all of them stood up on mass when the second goal went in and headed for the exits.  

PREDICTION: An attendance of not much more than 5,000, or maybe even less than 5,000, for the QPR Cup game.

Dave Thomas January 11 2009