The Longside Reference

Name: Dean Marney

Date of Birth: 31st January 1984 

Place of Birth: Barking, London

Previous Clubs: Tottenham Hotspurs, Swindon Town (Loan), Queens Park Rangers (Loan), Gillingham (Loan), Norwich City (Loan), Hull City, Burnley

Burnley Fee:  Free Transfer

Signed by Brian Laws

Contract: Threeyear deal comencing on 1st July 2010

Burnley Debut:

2011/12 Squad Number: 8

Clarets stats: Marney is an attacking midfielder and a product of the Tottenham Hotspur youth system . He really emerged onto the scene in a mid season friendly for Spurs against Irish champions Bohemians putting in a man of the match performance from injured Steven Carrs right back position.

Dean was unable to get his start as a young player in the Tottenham team, he was loaned out early on in his career to Swindon Town.

His first taste of first team action came in August 2003 when Spurs played against Birmingham City. But by January 2004 he had joined Queens Park Rangers on loan, as by that time Spurs had strengthened their strike force. Upon his return he was handed his debut start, but that would be his only appearance until November 2004, when he joined Gillingham on loan.

When he returned to Tottenham, he was immediately thrown in at the deep end, as a last minute choice to face an Everton team on 1 January, in which he scored the first and last goals of the match in a 5–2 victory, the second being a superb 25 yard curler into the top right corner.

He struggled with form until February 2005, the month in which he participated in his first international, an England under-21 match versus Holland. He has not appeared for England since then. In the 2004–05 season he spent three months on a loan deal at Northern Irish club side Institute where he struggled to make an impact. They chose not to extend this deal and he returned to Spurs for the commencement of the 2005–06 season.

After considerable squad strengthening in the early part of the 2005–06 season, which included the signings of Edgar Davids and Jermaine Jenas, he found himself out of action, and moved for a season-long loan to Norwich City in the hope of winning them promotion back to the Premier League. However his time at Norwich City was cut short due to injury and he returned to Tottenham on 31 October 2005.

Phil Parkinson made Marney his second signing for Hull City on the 14 July 2006 for an undisclosed fee, Dean made over 125 appearances for the Tigers, before relegation in 2009/10 where with Hull in financial difficulties and Dean being a top earner he was able to leave on a free.

Burnley manager Brian Laws made Marney his first summer signing on 28 May 2010 and was given the number 8 jersey, Dean made 34 starts in his first season for Burnley scoring 3 times, Dean is of a special breed of midfielder, the one who never gets the recognition his workload deserves.

He will be remembered for the winning goal against Portsmouth at Fratton Park when he preformed acrobatics to score with an overhead kick to give his new manager Eddie Howe a much deserved win against the Pompey side who dropped out of the Premier division at the same time as Burnley.

Dean played on 42 occasions in 2011/12, without scoring, but that stat is a little unfortunate for Dean who is a midfield power house whos workrate has never showed in the goals-for colum. As a career Dean played over 200 times and has hit the net just 12 time, 6 of those in Hulls Premiership season 2007/08.