A New Day Dawns...

[The Bedlington Terrier]

A New Day Dawns…

There can be little doubt of the seismic changes that have gone on inside Turf Moor within the last four months.

After a decade at the Clarets helm Sean Dyche was fired, interim first team manager Michael Jackson did his best to keep the EPL ship floating, but ultimately a poor season on the field of play meant relegation to the Championship became inevitable.
Burnley chairman Alan Pace stated the club’s financial situation following relegation meant the playing squad would be overhauled and ex-City captain was duly appointed first team manager from Belgian club Anderlecht. Defensive stalwarts James Tarkowski, Nick Pope and Ben Mee have all left the club leaving a defensive black hole that will take some filling.

Other high wage earners have left Turf Moor; Nathan Collins has joined Wolverhampton Wanderers and it seems likely the exodus of big salaried players may soon be departing Burnley Football Club through the ever-revolving door on Harry Potts Way. Dwight McNeil and Maxwell Cornet are believed to be the subject of imminent big money bids, which leaves Kompany with some awkward decisions for the Clarets opening fixture against Huddersfield Town on Friday 29th July at the John Smith Stadium.

A match preview with less than six days to go until the start of the new Championship would usually be hard enough, but with new faces likely to arrive and old faces likely to depart from Turf Moor before the new season kicks off, makes the job doubly difficult.

The Terriers will be determined to start a new campaign with a home win whilst Vincent Kompany’s new look Clarets will be equally determined to open with a rewarding result.

Media reports suggest Kompany will try to replicate Pep Guardiola’s style of play from his Manchester City playing days and a 4-2-2-2 formation seems the obvious opening day shape for Burnley. The Clarets manager must be able to integrate old heads with the raft of new young players who have arrived at turf Moor within the last few weeks and that will be no walk in the park even for a disciple of Guardiola’s keep the ball and score at will strategy.

I expect us to kick off the new campaign with a starting eleven that will look something like this: Muric, Roberts, Long, Harwood-Bellis, Taylor, Cullen, Brownhill, Bastien, Cornet, McNeil, and Rodriguez. Of course, this predicted line up is dependent on the speed of the revolving door at Turf Moor within the next five days.

Attachment 22207

A new day may well be dawning but Vincent Kompany has one heck of a job on his hands sorting out the turmoil of the last four months at Turf Moor.

[ClaretinBudapest]

Problem is BT if Mcneil and Cornet depart we are left with the deadwood apart from Taylor and maybe Roberts.Mixing that deadwood with new young talent will not be enough to get us into the play offs.History tells us the yo yo clubs do not sell off all their crown jewels after relegation.The changes are not mandatory-they were forced upon us by the sale of the club.We will soon see if VK is as good off the pitch as on it.
I have not seen any mass exodus at Norwich or Watford and expect them to be the two teams pushing for the automatic places.Mid table at best for us.You cannot change 70-80% of the team and expect them to gel after a couple of friendlies.UTC!

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Problem is BT if Mcneil and Cornet depart we are left with the deadwood apart from Taylor and maybe Roberts.Mixing that deadwood with new young talent will not be enough to get us into the play offs.History tells us the yo yo clubs do not sell off all their crown jewels after relegation.The changes are not mandatory-they were forced upon us by the sale of the club.We will soon see if VK is as good off the pitch as on it.UTC.

Hard to predict just what will happen CiB, but if Cornet and McNeil both leave, I think we are up $hit's creek without a paddle. I watched sinkov's horror show from Portugal and it did not fill me with a sense of joy and wellbeing.

[wanderlust]

On the positive side, the club has received decent transfer money and cut the wage bill so you're much nearer to operating within your means and believe me that is paramount. Building a new team takes time and it's nigh impossible to evaluate where the team is at until a couple of months into the season so all you can do is try to have faith in the owners and manager - and keep the bedsheets on standby
Helluva tough division the Championship - even League 1 has some big hitters - but personally I reckon Kompany will get you moving in the right direction again, given time.

[Vintage Claret]

While I expected a mass exodus from the club especially with the number of out of contract players we had at the end of last season, I think it showed very little ambition to sell Pope and Collins very cheaply in my opinion. It appears to show that Sinkov is correct when he talks about our pot less American owners.

Looking at that the Portugal nightmare our goalkeeping was dire, it is hard to judge the defence on such short video clips but the short passing appeared to need some work on the training pitch. The clips did not show us attaching their goal, but based on last season I have to hope Cornet stays as I can not see Barnes and JRod being any better this coming season.

I am still slightly optimistic that we can finish in the top six and I only hope that Kompany can sort out our defence. We do in my opinion need to recruit a striker who can play with our present two aging strikers. I had hoped we would have convinced Vydra into staying but that does not appear to have been the case.

[Swissclaret]

While I expected a mass exodus from the club especially with the number of out of contract players we had at the end of last season, I think it showed very little ambition to sell Pope and Collins very cheaply in my opinion. It appears to show that Sinkov is correct when he talks about our pot less American owners.

Looking at that the Portugal nightmare our goalkeeping was dire, it is hard to judge the defence on such short video clips but the short passing appeared to need some work on the training pitch. The clips did not show us attaching their goal, but based on last season I have to hope Cornet stays as I can not see Barnes and JRod being any better this coming season.

I am still slightly optimistic that we can finish in the top six and I only hope that Kompany can sort out our defence. We do in my opinion need to recruit a striker who can play with our present two aging strikers. I had hoped we would have convinced Vydra into staying but that does not appear to have been the case.

Due to the financial position of the club, I don’t think that they had any choice but to sell. Keeping the club in existence and out of administration has to be the number one priority, whether we like it or not.

To me, bringing in VK and using funding to bring in new players to refresh an aging squad does show ambition. What’s the alternative - someone like Tony Pulis. Like you I am optimistic about the season ahead. An immediate return to the PL may be a bridge too far unless we accept being another yo-yo club, with relegation every time as a given.

In the end a successful Championship club is no bad thing until such time as ALK can find significant investors that would mean that we could be competitive in the PL. That day may never come.

Thé $64’000 question is always going to be: do you want to watch your team competing and winning games; or struggling in every match in the PL?

For me it is seeing them playing good football and winning!

[sinkov]

until such time as ALK can find significant investors that would mean that we could be competitive in the PL.

It must be three, four, five years ago now that Garlick was saying similar, he and the board had taken the club as far as they could, and if we wanted to remain competitive in the PL, then significant investors would have to be found.

Those significant investors were found, Mr Pace and ALK, which is why Garlick sold the club to them, so how is it that our significant investors are now looking for other significant investors ? Someone has been taking the piss.

[Swissclaret]

It must be three, four, five years ago now that Garlick was saying similar, he and the board had taken the club as far as they could, and if we wanted to remain competitive in the PL, then significant investors would have to be found.

Those significant investors were found, Mr Pace and ALK, which is why Garlick sold the club to them, so how is it that our significant investors are now looking for other significant investors ? Someone has been taking the piss.

Garlick got out while the going was good. A leveraged buyout is not a «*significant investment*».

[sinkov]

Garlick got out while the going was good. A leveraged buyout is not a «*significant investment*».

Exactly Swiss, but that's what the deal was sold as to the fans, we were conned.

[Vintage Claret]

Due to the financial position of the club, I don’t think that they had any choice but to sell. Keeping the club in existence and out of administration has to be the number one priority, whether we like it or not.

To me, bringing in VK and using funding to bring in new players to refresh an aging squad does show ambition. What’s the alternative - someone like Tony Pulis. Like you I am optimistic about the season ahead. An immediate return to the PL may be a bridge too far unless we accept being another yo-yo club, with relegation every time as a given.

In the end a successful Championship club is no bad thing until such time as ALK can find significant investors that would mean that we could be competitive in the PL. That day may never come.

Thé $64’000 question is always going to be: do you want to watch your team competing and winning games; or struggling in every match in the PL?

For me it is seeing them playing good football and winning!

Swiss I do understand that we need to balance the books, but if we sell our assets too cheaply then the balancing of the books is going to take longer.

I am very happy to have Kompany as our manager as his tactics look to be playing football rather than the Dyche-ball we endured for so long.

if ALK are indeed looking for a significant investors then I do hope they succeed, but until then I will remain optimistic that we may return to the premier league at some point.