The Longside Reference

Burnley Manager from July 1997 till May 1998

What might have been???

Every manager Burnley has ever had can put down success or failure down to one player or one peice of bad luck, Chris Waddle is slightly different.

The one player could have been Gerry Creaney, but with Gerry scoring 8 in 9 starts, this could have been the player Waddle could have listed as the one who cost him,  but Waddle went out and brought the 'Padiham Predator' back to Burnley, where he is hero worshiped, and Waddle did it in spectacular style transferring a Burnley misfit Paul Barnes in a straight swap.

The peice of luck could have been Glen Little, Waddle brought Glen into the side in January 1998, lo and behold the side transformed from relegation certainties to a half decent division two side.

Born in Felling, Tyne and Wear, on 14th December 1962, Waddle had an unusual path into professional football, according to his official biography, he left school early dreaming of a life of soccer stardom. His early life meant staying in bed till his friends and team mates came home from school, then play football till it was too dark, or his school friends got called in.

As a 16 year old, Chris played for local non-league side Tow Law Town, where he was making quite a name for himself, although the first few trials for Waddle were unsuccessful, failing to impress Sunderland or Coventry City, there was a light at the end of the tunnel when Newcastle United took a chance on the now 18 year old factory worker in 1980, when a fee of £1.000 was paid.

And with Waddle's unique playing style, a gangly 6 foot 2 winger who had a look of an uninterested old man, but with the ball at his feet he was magical, a true match winner.,

His St James park debut came in 1980, against Shrewsbury Town. While in 1983/84 in the company of Beardsley the former Manchester United Junior, and Kevin Keegan a Liverpool and soon to be Geordie legend went up to the first division as Champions. In five years on tyne-side Waddle made over 170 appearances scoring over 40 goals. while making inroads into the national side being picked and playing in the game against the Republic of Ireland, in the U21 set up.

£590.000 would be the fee paid by Tottenham Hotspur, to take the Geordie dancer down to the bright lights of London, 'Diamond lights' to be precise! when the winger teamed up with England and Spurs team mate Glenn Hoddle and went disco dancing onto 'Top of The Pops', a top 20 hit and a mullet and the shame of seeing himself in the worst ever songs to hit the charts.

While at Spurs, Waddle made himself a fixture in the England side, losing quarter finalists to Maradona in 1986 and the 'infamous' hand of god, he was also in the squad for the three defeats in the Euro Championship of 1988. After four years in London with Spurs, Waddle was no nearer getting his hands on any silverware, losing Finalist in the 1987 FA Cup, being beaten by Coventry, third place in the first division, and semi-finals of the league cup.

Chris Waddle finally got his hands on some silverware, but had to cross the English Channel to do so, he left the 'Diamond Lights' of London in 1989 for 4.5 million pounds, and started a new chapter in the life of the former sausage factory worker. Waddle won three back to back titles with Marseille, in one of the greatest club sides the french leagues has ever seen.

Waddle returned to England in 1992 in for £1.25 million when Trevor Francis payed out for the talismanic wing-man to transfer over to Sheffield Wednesday. The club reached both domestic cup finals in the 1992-93 season (losing both to Arsenal - Waddle scored Wednesday's goal in the FA Cup final replay)

Waddle was voted the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year in 1993

his later career at Wednesday was plagued with injuries, so much so that he was released five games into the 1995/96 season, Falkirk was his next port of call, when in a bid to regain some fitness and just to play Waddle dropped down in footballing levels, only a month had gone in Scotland and Chris was on his way south this time to Bradford City. He managed 25 games in the Amber and Black scoring a total of 6 goals, before boyhood heroes Sunderland came in with a nominal fee of £75.000 took him to Roker Park, but he could not stop Peter Reid's side form being relegated.

Burnley had just lost Adrian Heath in this time, and while John Ward looked favorite to take over, Frank Teasdale the Burnley Chairman took a bold move, a little like the one John Jackson took just over a decade before when he looked outside the club to hire John Bond.

Teasdale saw Chris Waddle as a way of bringing the glory days back to Turf Moor,the programme notes for the opening League game with Gillingham, Frank Teasdale wrote " The appointment of Chris Waddle, Glenn Roader, Gordon Cowans and Chris Woods has certainly raised our profile and a few eyebrows.....The events of the last few weeks are now behind us, positive steps have been made to steady the ship, time will tell if the decisions made were the right ones"   and given time and money maybe Mr Teasdale was right.

When Chris Waddle breezed into Turf Moor in a blaze of publicity, everyone remembers the England player who mesmerised us just ten years previous, everyone thought the connections he had would make it easier to make top notch signings.

Waddle had his own men, Chris Woods the former England Goalkeeper, who signed on to play in emergencies, Gordon Cowans, who as coach signed on to also don the Claret n Blue and Glenn Roader a former Newcastle man who was a rather good footballer, the future looked good !

In all honesty Heath left Burnley in good playing shape, Beresford, Brass, Barnes, Eyres, Matthew, Weller and Cooke were all there, maybe one or two signings and the nucleus of a good side was in reach. But Waddle's transition from player to manager didn't gel quite as quickly as the Burnley Support would have expected/liked ! Micheal Williams, Steve Blatherwick, Lee Howey and Mark Ford were his signings, our hope his connections would bring a gold rush of quality players petered out rather quickly.

During Heath's final season, Inchy unearthed a diamond by the name of Glen Little, a player in the mould of Waddle himself, he oozed class and was like Waddle during his playing days, a match winner. But where was Burnley mercurial winger during Waddle s early games? The answer is left out in the cold, Waddle favoured playing himself on the right hand side of midfield, one of the decisions that was wrong in hindsight, one of many.

1997/98 was Chris Waddles only season in charge, and his only time in management in the football league (when this was written), and on paper it wasn't a baptism of fire of such Watford away, lose 1-0, not the end of the world, a home draw with Gillingham followed sandwiched between a 1-1 draw with lowly Lincoln City in the cup, Lee Howey getting the first competitive Burnley goal of the Waddle reign.

October and with Burnley rock bottom of the Second division, and five goals scored in the first 10 league games, it wasn't looking too rosy, Paul Barnes notched the first of these league goals in the 3-1 defeat at York, Andy Cooke got one in the creditable 1-1 draw at home to Preston,  Mark Ford at Brentford, before Gerry Creaney notched two on October 4th against Wycombe Wanderers. But on the 11th Burnley got the three points Waddle needed, Burnley 3 Carlisle 1, goals from Barnes and Creaney(2). Waddle looked out of his depth, watching on/off when Saturday pie and pea league allowed, I could not help but notice how unbalanced the team WAS, under Waddle, we seemed to play with six forwards and five in defence, no box to box midfield, no overlapping full backs, a player manager who took an eternity to get back across the half way line after 'another' move broke down, and most annoying of all every player would brake his neck to pass the ball to our manager Waddle! after the first ten minutes even Borrowdale  United Under 9s would have sussed that move out.

Waddle won just five games by the end of 1997, one of those the 2-1 victory over Lincoln City in the Coca-cola cup 1st round.

The turning point for Waddle (wall almost) was on the 10th January 1998, a return of local born Andy Payton, and a first League start for Glenn Little and low and behold a 2-0 victory against Watford who went on to become champions! Now the lowly supporter get chastised for knowing nothing while said manager knows best, but these Burnley fans were celebrating the talents of Glenn Little for months while Waddle chose himself! who know best here then?

Burnley hit a good run of form from then on Payton and Andy Cooke hit it off and Burnley had a front two what worked, Glen Little the magician on the wing and a rejuvenated Gerry Harrison playing the holding midfield role, Waddle only played 9 games in the second half of the season, Beresford who had now been sold, Chris Woods took over between the sticks. Burnley won 8 league games during the second half of the season, which brings us up to Plymouth Argyle, and a must win game.

Plymouth Argyle must hate Burnley after the Play-offs in 94, but here we are with a straight shoot out to who goes down, Burnley had not been out of the bottom four all season. Burnley won 2-1 with two goals from Andy Cooke, and Burnley were safe for another year.

Waddle left shortly after the Plymouth game, and with the old saying out with the old... Burnley it was more out with the new and in with the old, Stan Ternent a Claret of old left Bury to take over the shambles Burnley were left in, and that blame is not all directed at Chris Waddle, who some believe if he had stayed for another season, it all could have been so different.

Waddle drifted from leaving Burnley, a short spell and Torquay before non-league beckoned, before a coaching job at Sheffield Wednesday came up in 2000. Nowadays Chris summaries for Radio Five Live, where his knowledge on football (or in some peoples view lack of) is well worth tuning into.

Below is a fantastc inteview with Chriss Waddle by Chris Boden of the Burnley Express

http://www.burnleyexpress.net/burnleyfc/Exclusive-Chris-Waddle-on-life.4858453.jp