Everyone Happy ?

[Altobelli]

With JayRod, Pieters and Drinkwater ? I have not included Peacock as he comes under the rolled out saying of "one for the Future".

I know I'm in the minority here but I'm still not.

First off we all know that these windows get more and more extortionate at every opening. Yet we hear the same excuses coming out of Turf Moor every time "money is hard to find at this place" "can’t compete”, “our way of doing things”, “difficult market”, "The market shifts" (But we certainly don't), IMO its patronising and disrespectful, he has broken our transfer record a few times while he's been our Manager, as well as wasting £16 Million plus wages on Wells and Vydra.

BT's famous 5 at the helm at BFC really need to change their strategy, or maybe its too late now as they have left it too long, Words from Garlick like "we are going to break our transfer record" in 2 consecutive windows yet we never did, for me shows signs of arrogance or amateurism, or both but nowhere near the quality of what a stable leader should be saying.

To stay strong and survive in this league you have to improve the team, you have to also watch the age of the squad and not let it get too old, if you leave players to age for too long it takes longer and more money to build it again, O.K. the youth production line can be a saviour but it should not just be left up to that, we have wanted a creative midfielder for more than a while, as Stan used to say a blind man on a galloping horse could see D4 was and still is struggling, for me a few players are weak links, Lowton just not good enough, His replacement Beardsley is nearing the end, Pieters to keep Taylor on his toes but again an aged player, Tarkowski , Mee , Gibson and Long as a collective are O.K. but not PL class, Iceman and Lennon just not good enough, Brady and D4 crocked, Cork for me for all his stamina and running around is knocked off the ball too easy, Hendrick can be awful, Westwood our star midfielder last season but I doubt he'd get in many other PL teams, Wood needs to learn the offside rule, Barnes for all his get into their faces attitude which I love is not prolific, JayRod we will have to wait to see where Dyche plays him, and Vydra is not wanted and has himself asked for a transfer. still left with Pope and Hart as # 1 and 2, for all of Harts good saves I just don't like him near our starting 11, I just feel he's a bad influence.

The signing of Drinkwater is only a stop gap at the moment so the creative midfield position is still open, and I thought we didn't do loans ? Perhaps Dyche thinks D4 will be back but I very much doubt it, and why did it come down to the last day for it to happen ? If Chelsea or Drinkwater himself wanted to play hard ball we could have lost out, its ridiculous, and Wells, why not sell him to Swansea and swallow the loss instead of still being lumbered with a player we obviously are not going to play ?

Signing below average, in the view of a lot of fans is risking our Premier League status when there are actually funds to purchase someone above that average, there must come a time soon when we go that extra mile if only to prove we are genuinely serious about being competitive in this league. Whether that is by breaking our transfer record again or paying existing players more in salary, we must show more intent to those clubs around us that we now possess the financial clout to make a real go of being competitive in the best league in the world. We should not be being upstaged by newly promoted clubs, The saying little old Burnley should be binned forever !
We continue to show a preference for building cash reserves over investing in the squad. The current levels of Cash in hand indicates such a policy is no longer necessary and priority should be diverted to team building.

We have had a recruitment team for years now who are supposed to be looking for players to improve our squad and, more importantly, our starting eleven. Is it unrealistic for us to expect them to perform their duties.
They will know the budgets that the club have set for signings so we should not even bother looking at players it's said "we cannot afford" or are reluctant to stretch too which is more to the point.

If the English Market is too expensive look abroad other Clubs do so why is it so hard for Burnley.

So No, I'm still not happy the way we go about things and seemingly scrape the bottom of the barrel on the last day for scraps, the first team have been strengthened a little, and with Drinkwater (if he performs) the midfield looks better, but if we get 2 or 3 key players injured/suspended then it could tell on us significantly, regardless of how many "Internationals" we claim to have.

[blueheeler1]

With JayRod, Pieters and Drinkwater ? I have not included Peacock as he comes under the rolled out saying of "one for the Future".

I know I'm in the minority here but I'm still not.

First off we all know that these windows get more and more extortionate at every opening. Yet we hear the same excuses coming out of Turf Moor every time "money is hard to find at this place" "can’t compete”, “our way of doing things”, “difficult market”, "The market shifts" (But we certainly don't), IMO its patronising and disrespectful, he has broken our transfer record a few times while he's been our Manager, as well as wasting £16 Million plus wages on Wells and Vydra.

BT's famous 5 at the helm at BFC really need to change their strategy, or maybe its too late now as they have left it too long, Words from Garlick like "we are going to break our transfer record" in 2 consecutive windows yet we never did, for me shows signs of arrogance or amateurism, or both but nowhere near the quality of what a stable leader should be saying.

To stay strong and survive in this league you have to improve the team, you have to also watch the age of the squad and not let it get too old, if you leave players to age for too long it takes longer and more money to build it again, O.K. the youth production line can be a saviour but it should not just be left up to that, we have wanted a creative midfielder for more than a while, as Stan used to say a blind man on a galloping horse could see D4 was and still is struggling, for me a few players are weak links, Lowton just not good enough, His replacement Beardsley is nearing the end, Pieters to keep Taylor on his toes but again an aged player, Tarkowski , Mee , Gibson and Long as a collective are O.K. but not PL class, Iceman and Lennon just not good enough, Brady and D4 crocked, Cork for me for all his stamina and running around is knocked off the ball too easy, Hendrick can be awful, Westwood our star midfielder last season but I doubt he'd get in many other PL teams, Wood needs to learn the offside rule, Barnes for all his get into their faces attitude which I love is not prolific, JayRod we will have to wait to see where Dyche plays him, and Vydra is not wanted and has himself asked for a transfer. still left with Pope and Hart as # 1 and 2, for all of Harts good saves I just don't like him near our starting 11, I just feel he's a bad influence.

The signing of Drinkwater is only a stop gap at the moment so the creative midfield position is still open, and I thought we didn't do loans ? Perhaps Dyche thinks D4 will be back but I very much doubt it, and why did it come down to the last day for it to happen ? If Chelsea or Drinkwater himself wanted to play hard ball we could have lost out, its ridiculous, and Wells, why not sell him to Swansea and swallow the loss instead of still being lumbered with a player we obviously are not going to play ?

Signing below average, in the view of a lot of fans is risking our Premier League status when there are actually funds to purchase someone above that average, there must come a time soon when we go that extra mile if only to prove we are genuinely serious about being competitive in this league. Whether that is by breaking our transfer record again or paying existing players more in salary, we must show more intent to those clubs around us that we now possess the financial clout to make a real go of being competitive in the best league in the world. We should not be being upstaged by newly promoted clubs, The saying little old Burnley should be binned forever !
We continue to show a preference for building cash reserves over investing in the squad. The current levels of Cash in hand indicates such a policy is no longer necessary and priority should be diverted to team building.

We have had a recruitment team for years now who are supposed to be looking for players to improve our squad and, more importantly, our starting eleven. Is it unrealistic for us to expect them to perform their duties.
They will know the budgets that the club have set for signings so we should not even bother looking at players it's said "we cannot afford" or are reluctant to stretch too which is more to the point.

If the English Market is too expensive look abroad other Clubs do so why is it so hard for Burnley.

So No, I'm still not happy the way we go about things and seemingly scrape the bottom of the barrel on the last day for scraps, the first team have been strengthened a little, and with Drinkwater (if he performs) the midfield looks better, but if we get 2 or 3 key players injured/suspended then it could tell on us significantly, regardless of how many "Internationals" we claim to have.

A hearts -rendering and comprehensive set of thoughts Atobelli even if a little gloomy.

The only thing I hope is that the "total'" is a lot better than the sum of the parts.

That hope and the hope for a mainly injury and suspension free season is our best bet.

Interestingly that seemed to be the case last year when, against all odds, we stayed up due to heroics when it mattered.

Can lightning strike twice?

The bottom line is that we look this season to find three teams worse off than ourselves.

And that is our survival plan, really.

And if we do there is another 110M to keep in the dry powder room.

Being a Burnley fan isn't for the faint-hearted but you do wonder when all of us Dinasours take our seats in the Turf O'the Sky will the next generation be content to watch survival football when they can watch the top players in other clubs achieving stuff?

Because it is, after all, entertainment they will seek not week by week torture.

[army88]

With JayRod, Pieters and Drinkwater ? I have not included Peacock as he comes under the rolled out saying of "one for the Future".

I know I'm in the minority here but I'm still not.

First off we all know that these windows get more and more extortionate at every opening. Yet we hear the same excuses coming out of Turf Moor every time "money is hard to find at this place" "can’t compete”, “our way of doing things”, “difficult market”, "The market shifts" (But we certainly don't), IMO its patronising and disrespectful, he has broken our transfer record a few times while he's been our Manager, as well as wasting £16 Million plus wages on Wells and Vydra.

BT's famous 5 at the helm at BFC really need to change their strategy, or maybe its too late now as they have left it too long, Words from Garlick like "we are going to break our transfer record" in 2 consecutive windows yet we never did, for me shows signs of arrogance or amateurism, or both but nowhere near the quality of what a stable leader should be saying.

To stay strong and survive in this league you have to improve the team, you have to also watch the age of the squad and not let it get too old, if you leave players to age for too long it takes longer and more money to build it again, O.K. the youth production line can be a saviour but it should not just be left up to that, we have wanted a creative midfielder for more than a while, as Stan used to say a blind man on a galloping horse could see D4 was and still is struggling, for me a few players are weak links, Lowton just not good enough, His replacement Beardsley is nearing the end, Pieters to keep Taylor on his toes but again an aged player, Tarkowski , Mee , Gibson and Long as a collective are O.K. but not PL class, Iceman and Lennon just not good enough, Brady and D4 crocked, Cork for me for all his stamina and running around is knocked off the ball too easy, Hendrick can be awful, Westwood our star midfielder last season but I doubt he'd get in many other PL teams, Wood needs to learn the offside rule, Barnes for all his get into their faces attitude which I love is not prolific, JayRod we will have to wait to see where Dyche plays him, and Vydra is not wanted and has himself asked for a transfer. still left with Pope and Hart as # 1 and 2, for all of Harts good saves I just don't like him near our starting 11, I just feel he's a bad influence.

The signing of Drinkwater is only a stop gap at the moment so the creative midfield position is still open, and I thought we didn't do loans ? Perhaps Dyche thinks D4 will be back but I very much doubt it, and why did it come down to the last day for it to happen ? If Chelsea or Drinkwater himself wanted to play hard ball we could have lost out, its ridiculous, and Wells, why not sell him to Swansea and swallow the loss instead of still being lumbered with a player we obviously are not going to play ?

Signing below average, in the view of a lot of fans is risking our Premier League status when there are actually funds to purchase someone above that average, there must come a time soon when we go that extra mile if only to prove we are genuinely serious about being competitive in this league. Whether that is by breaking our transfer record again or paying existing players more in salary, we must show more intent to those clubs around us that we now possess the financial clout to make a real go of being competitive in the best league in the world. We should not be being upstaged by newly promoted clubs, The saying little old Burnley should be binned forever !
We continue to show a preference for building cash reserves over investing in the squad. The current levels of Cash in hand indicates such a policy is no longer necessary and priority should be diverted to team building.

We have had a recruitment team for years now who are supposed to be looking for players to improve our squad and, more importantly, our starting eleven. Is it unrealistic for us to expect them to perform their duties.
They will know the budgets that the club have set for signings so we should not even bother looking at players it's said "we cannot afford" or are reluctant to stretch too which is more to the point.

If the English Market is too expensive look abroad other Clubs do so why is it so hard for Burnley.

So No, I'm still not happy the way we go about things and seemingly scrape the bottom of the barrel on the last day for scraps, the first team have been strengthened a little, and with Drinkwater (if he performs) the midfield looks better, but if we get 2 or 3 key players injured/suspended then it could tell on us significantly, regardless of how many "Internationals" we claim to have.

That's as comprehensive as I'd have posted Alto , and all of it absolutely true ( you'll be demonized on here though I'm afraid ).

We are riding the wave that is Sean Dyche and asking him year on year to come up trumps the first t ime that doesn't happen will be interesting.

I also think there is a factor that players will perform better if the're are competition for places so fresh faces and better footballers does two things , forces everyone to play better and raise their game or go elsewhere to ply their trade.

I'm all for us being conservative with money but we are so far off the mark with it here it's ridiculous, I mean the board even promised the fans this year and we signed ( granted a good player ) on a 6 month loan in a transfer window with an hour spare.

Jay has returned for his swansong where he started life and Pieters is cover ( may wouldn't have come back if he was even 2 years younger than he is ).

The fundamental make up of our policys s in buying _procurement of players is amateur at best _ it will end in tears eventually as the team will come to the end lifts life and of Dyche will leave ___well be in it up to our necks then.

I don't think.It's much to Ask Alto as you say for the club to get behind Dyche and he Progressive instead of standing still and hoping there will be 3 worse teams than us.

[sinkov]

I was reasonably happy, compared with last summer's debacle when the team wasn't improved at all, we had managed to keep hold of Tarko, improved midfield with the signing of Drinkwater and added Jay up front. Other teams had done more, but with our manager I was thinking maybe it was just enough. And then I heard we only had Drinkwater for five months and that old familiar feeling returned, the feeling that we are out of our depth at this level and our board still struggle to come to terms with the financial implications.

It's a bit like having a glimpse into the future and knowing that your best CM is going to be carted off the field on a stretcher the first game in January, he might be out for the season, he might make a miraculous recovery and be fit for the next game, but you don't know. What a shocking way to treat a manager, once again it's over to you Sean, do your best mate and hope that there are the usual three basket cases and we might get away with it again.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Pragmatism, prudence and progression. These are three words that are unimaginably difficult to weld together and make gel in a world of greedy agents, mercenary players and unbelievably demanding football supporters, in which Sean Dyche operates.

Dyche often talks about Little Old Burnley being a work in progress. I remember all to well that first winter of discontent when he replaced Eddie Howe and I was bored sh-itless as he tightened up our leaky defence as we struggled to retain our place in the Championship.

Five of us went to Molineux at the end of that season to support the Clarets in really what was a "Winner takes all game". We won, Wolves went down. Take that in please guys - WOLVES WENT DOWN!

Since then SD has traded players, developed players and Little Old Burnley start their FOURTH consecutive season at the top table of English football and incredibly are now amongst the richest football clubs on the planet.

We kick off a new season tomorrow solvent, improved and ready to rock and roll and yet still our armchair brigade (you all know who you are) moan and knock what an accomplishment is beyond "Roy of the Rovers" fictional comic book stuff.

Sean Dyche can select his starting eleven from the following fully fit and raring to go players:
Pope, Hart, BFP & Legzdins.
Lowton, Bardsley, Mee, Long, Dunne, Gibson, Tarkowski, Taylor & Pieters.
JBG, Westwood, Cork, Hendrick, Drinkwater & Lennon.
Jay Rod, Barnes, Wood, Vydra & McNeil.
Defour and Brady are considered "long term sick" and sadly are unavailable.

On the way back from Molineux six years ago we discussed the future of Burnley Football Club. If anyone of us had suggested a few years later Little Old Burnley would be rich beyond its wildest dreams, be able to select from SIX**** full internationals and embark on yet another season in the EPL and not the Championship, where we had previously toiled for THIR**** consecutive seasons we would have laughed our bolloxs off.

Perhaps Burnley Football Club is not for some of you, your hopes and aspirations lay with the Real Madrid's and Barcelona's of this world. On reflection Stan was right, "We are Burnley not Barcelona".

Moaning Minnie's please give your heads a good wobble, Drinkwater's loan can be extended, we may even decide to break our transfer record in January and bring him on board full time. Six months gives us enough time to see if our investment would be sensible.

Happily for us Sean Dyche is blessed with common sense and knows how to mix pragmatism, prudence and progression.

Seriously, tomorrow at 15.00 cannot come quickly enough for me and 20,000 other Clarets supporters. Who of you are with us?

[ClaretofOz]

All the way from Melbourne, in memory of my father-in-law and uncle, both from Lower House Lane in the 50s and 60s. Miss them both, barely had time to support the Clarets together, I have developed a love for Burnley FC. I will be at Turf Moor to watch one day, but in the meantime, I am with the 20,001 supporters you speak of tomorrow.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

All the way from Melbourne, in memory of my father-in-law and uncle, both from Lower House Lane in the 50s and 60s. Miss them both, barely had time to support the Clarets together, I have developed a love for Burnley FC. I will be at Turf Moor to watch one day, but in the meantime, I am with the 20,001 supporters you speak of tomorrow.

Top man!

[sinkov]

The old 'not proper fans' argument being wheeled out again BT. It's not valid, it's perfectly acceptable and reasonable for any Burnley fan to point out where he/she thinks the club might be run better.

You can think what you like, but when we appoint a technical director charged with overhauling player recruitment, when we are told that the Vokes money would be added to the pot for summer signings, that there was money available and we would be proactive in the market, and all we end up with is Jay and a five month loan deal completed at the last minute, fans have every right to feel a tad disappointed. We were led to believe this summer was going to be different, but it's been same old, same old.

And could I use some of your own words, we 'are now amongst the richest football clubs on the planet' and Burnley FC is 'rich beyond it's wildest dreams'. All some of us would like is that we start acting accordingly and give our excellent manager the support he deserves, and stop acting as though the administrators are hammering on the boardroom door.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

The old 'not proper fans' argument being wheeled out again BT. It's not valid, it's perfectly acceptable and reasonable for any Burnley fan to point out where he/she thinks the club might be run better.

You can think what you like, but when we appoint a technical director charged with overhauling player recruitment, when we are told that the Vokes money would be added to the pot for summer signings, that there was money available and we would be proactive in the market, and all we end up with is Jay and a five month loan deal completed at the last minute, fans have every right to feel a tad disappointed. We were led to believe this summer was going to be different, but it's been same old, same old.

And could I use some of your own words, we 'are now amongst the richest football clubs on the planet' and Burnley FC is 'rich beyond it's wildest dreams'. All some of us would like is that we start acting accordingly and give our excellent manager the support he deserves, and stop acting as though the administrators are hammering on the boardroom door.

You are an intelligent man sinkov, get your pencil out, check our accounts and then do the maths. We have just had a nett spend of £6.5 million. Happily, we have improved the squad and kept the Dry Powder Room intact.

Give or take we bring in about £120 million revenue during our tenure in the EPL and our total running expenses including wages is roughly £90 million. Corporation tax, bank reserves, capital expenditure on newly acquired assets need adding to the equation.

We need cash flow to run our business, we have a highly competitive First Team Squad, we have a much improved and progressing Development Squad.

Sean Dyche is also an intelligent man he knows we do not have megabucks to throw around. We have shifted Vokes and Heaton, no harm done, money still available in January and we kept hold of Tarkowski.

Onwards and forwards. Enjoy watching Clitheroe mon ami, me and the family are off down the Turf...

[sinkov]

Sometimes BT, you just can't win. A Burnley home game always took precedence over Clitheroe, then in August three years ago Burnley were at home to Liverpool and Clitheroe were at home to Consett in the FA cup, I was getting disillusioned with PL football, and anticipating another defeat, I decided not to suffer it and watch Clitheroe instead. My mates were gobsmacked when I turned up at Clitheroe and pissing themselves laughing by the end, as I had to endure Consett dumping Clitheroe out of the Cup, while I could have been watching Burnley beating Liverpool.

Served me right no doubt, but last year I went on't Turf just once and don't miss it one little bit. I hope you enjoy the game Saturday, it will mean we've won, which is what we all want, we just have differing ideas on the best way to achieve those wins.