Burnley v Brighton

[blueheeler1]

What an absolute bore of a game. I know I will get slated but it looks like that Aaron Lennon has become the second George Boyd. He is shocking, wanders away from his position , unable to influence the game and runs to the ball but by the time he gets there the ball has gone somewhere else. He is simply not good enough and this also applies to Geoff Hendrick who over the recent weeks has shown he has lost all confidence in his ability - time to get rid.

Firstly the game. First time I have ever thought that a Burnley game seemed to have lasted two days. Boring as hell and Europe? What a shalacking we are going to get with this type of performance (which for mine is five in a row).

The midfield has been crap since we have employed Westfield, Cork, Lennon and Gud. Only Gug and Cork worth their place.

Hendrick to go? Must be five or more in front of him and these five won't all go.

[ClaretinBudapest]

Firstly the game. First time I have ever thought that a Burnley game seemed to have lasted two days. Boring as hell and Europe? What a shalacking we are going to get with this type of performance (which for mine is five in a row).

The midfield has been crap since we have employed Westfield, Cork, Lennon and Gud. Only Gug and Cork worth their place.

Hendrick to go? Must be five or more in front of him and these five won't all go.

Here is my humble opinion of who is not good enough for the EPL:-

1.Hendrick-Championship standard at best.
2.Arfield-Going to Rangers
3.Lennon-Past sell by date
4.Marney-Same aa Lennon
5.Lindegard-Surplus to requirements
6.Westwood-Championship standard
7.Bardsley-Past sell by date

Some other players need time to prove themselves like Nkoudou and Wells but nothing to be too optimistic after seeing some glimpses of them.

[sinkov]

The midfield has been crap since .....

.....we lost Brady and Defour for the season. No surprise to me, take the two best players out of any midfield in the PL, below the top 6, and that team will have problems. The amazing thing to me is that we're still 7th despite those crippling losses to injury. An absolutely outstanding achievement, credit to all concerned, players, manager and coaches.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

SD has been building the team in layers.

Rodriguez, Dawson, Phillips and Gosling are all on the "wish list" and quite frankly,I can see all four of them arriving by early July.

[lancaster100]

OK but apart from Gosling all earn in excess of our highest earners so how will that work out?

[The Bedlington Terrier]

If the three Baggies players stay at the Hawthorns they are taking a 50% relegation deduction clause hit on their wages.

For instance Jay Rod is now on £65,000 a week which becomes £32,500. We give him a signing on fee and £40,000 a week and he's quids in!

Attachment 9333

[alfinyalcabo]

Why should he leave ,when he can get more competitive football in the championship than at Burnley.. I'm sure he will be able to live off 32 grand a week ..

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Why should he leave ,when he can get more competitive football in the championship than at Burnley.. I'm sure he will be able to live off 32 grand a week ..

Don't be daft Alf, the EPL and playing in Europe is where the action is..!

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Dave's take on it...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at Turf Moor

First the good; barring a bizarre and unprecedented sequence of results, Burnley are now guaranteed a place in the qualifying round of next season’s Europa League.

With just two matches remaining only Everton, who lie six points adrift of Burnley, can theoretically displace the Clarets from seventh place and the last qualifying position.

This is unlikely given the Toffees’ goal difference is inferior to the Clarets to the tune of fifteen goals and turning that around may be considered unlikely in the extreme.

All this points to a hectic close-season for the Clarets and moreover one that is shortened by the World Cup and the early start to the Europa qualifying rounds. This will put additional pressure on Sean Dyche as he looks to beef up both the quantity and quality of the Burnley squad.

That said, it is something of a misnomer perpetrated by lazy journalists, that Burnley have a small squad. They don’t, it merely seems that way because the starting line-up doesn’t really change very much.

If Burnley are to maintain their impressive upward trajectory, whilst simultaneously competing on an additional front, Sean Dyche will have to be prepared to show greater flexibility in his squad rotation.

He will now also have to do so without the services of Dean Marney and Scott Arfield, both of whom will be leaving the club at the end of the season.

These are two players who were there at the start of the incredible journey Dyche has taken the club on and both have contributed hugely to the success of that journey.

Football clubs and football managers cannot afford the luxury of being sentimental about players, but we fans can, and Clarets fans everywhere will offer a wistful and fond farewell to both “Scotty” and “Deano”.

The bad was yesterday’s nil-nil draw with Brighton, a drab and featureless encounter with little to commend it as a spectacle. Burnley’s play looked ponderous and tentative, whilst Brighton’s ambition seemed to merely revolve around the clean sheet that would surely rubber-stamp their Premier League survival.

There was one mad goal mouth scramble in the Seagulls end, a couple of decent penalty shouts for Burnley and a good save from a Gudmundsson free kick, but other than that, the yawns took over the stadium.

Finally the ugly, I love my club and I love my town, but the persistent booing of Brighton full-back Gaeten Bong from a section of the Burnley crowd made me squirm in my seat with distaste and embarrassment.

Bong, had accused the venerated former Claret and local Burnley lad Jay Rodriguez of a racial slur when Brighton recently played Rodriguez’s West Bromwich Albion.

Rodriguez was exonerated by the FA for lack of evidence, but that did nothing to appease those Burnley fans who vented a wildly disproportionate level of vitriol in Bong’s direction.

Brighton manager Chris Hughton, rightly, leapt to his player’s defence and called the booing “shameful” and he was right. This sort of thing presents the club in a terrible light and undermines much of the goodwill that the club has built up during their time in the Premier League.

Let’s have no more of this sort of thing please?

This article was written by uber Burnley fan Dave Thornley, who contributes regularly on behalf of Clarets Mad (TEC).

[Supersub6]

Good article but I can understand the animosity towards Bong who has been pursuing his own agenda against Jay in the local press --and that is since the FA verdict.
I don't go along with any of the chanting, singing etc., I am of an age, however, whilst Bong was right in bringing what he thought was said to the attention of the FA, his behaviour since the hearing has gone against the grain.
Hughton and company need to look at the wider picture because anyone who attends football matches knows that silly things are said, chanted etc. and the booing of an opposition player, which is all it was, is acceptable for whatever reason.
Were they booing because they didn't like him? Yes. So why did Chris Hughton have to say that it was shameful? That was because he had put the 'racist' slant on it.

Read the 30 page FA report and make up your own mind, At the end, one player apologied for his gesture and for what he actually said whilst the other has pursued his agenda through the local press and has not offered any apology that he may have misheard --even though in the report he states that there were things which were or were not said because he could not hear.
Not proven meant that there was no concrete evidence either way but yet one of the parties his still having his name dragged through the mud.
What a furore there would be from Brighton fans if Jay did return to the Clarets ---the mind boggles!