As I write, the warm glow left by our away win at
Stoke has yet to fade. Although the 2-1 scoreline
doesn’t quite reflect it, this was a match
in which we were easily the superior side, particularly
when it came to passing. Although there remains much
of the season to go and another crucial 41 points
to collect, my early fears of a season battling relegation
are beginning to recede.
Among the players who looked good at Stoke were
Luke Chadwick, David May, Gareth Farrelly and Andy
Todd. This is an interesting list. Three of these
players are on loan from North West premier league
clubs. The other arrived on a free transfer from
one of those local Premier clubs. Two of them have
strong connections with a club which is our bitterest
of rivals. May made his name playing for Blackburn,
while in the case of the Todd loan a direct deal
has been done between the two clubs for the first
time in a generation.
‘So what?’ would be a fair reaction.
What does it matter who we sign players from? To
an extent, I’d agree. I’m not so interested
in where players come from as what they do while
they’re here. But the fact that the Todd loan
was such a rare transaction, and that those at the
club felt the need to comment on the matter of us
signing him from Blackburn, shows that this is no
ordinary signing. When last season we were linked
with one or two other Blackburn players on loan,
there was some predictable internet dissent. This
gives us something to think about.
I think it would be safe to say that most Burnley
supporters possess a deep dislike of Blackburn. I
don’t necessarily think there’s anything
wrong with this. Football is a tribal game, and every
tribe needs a rival. I’d hesitate to use the
word ‘hatred’ here, although I expect
that would be how many would describe the relationship,
as I feel it’s going too far. Local rivalries
are pretty irrational things – football is
an irrational game after all – masking the
fact that supporters of local rival teams will be
pretty similar people. As it happens there are also
some rational reasons for disliking Blackburn. They
epitomised the money-buys-success attitude of the
90s and were responsible for stoking the fires of
transfer inflation. The new fans they acquired overnight
when they started splashing the cash knew nothing
of what it was really like to be a football supporter.
Another club all right-thinking people despise is
of course Manchester Utd. They’re the football
idiot’s club of choice, the favoured team of
the Sky subscription holder, the home counties schoolkid,
the vacuous celeb and the foreign tourist. They’re
the club for anyone who’s never been to Manchester.
They’re football’s equivalent of white
bread, English lager or instant coffee: a heavily-marketed,
ruthlessly commercial product for the masses. Urgh.
We, a proper, rather traditional football club,
have just done business with these dubious institutions – and
we’re all the better for it. From Man U we’ve
brought in two quality players on free transfers,
in the form of May and Roche, and one player on loan,
Luke Chadwick, who is shaping up to be an excellent
signing. And then of course from Blackburn – the
club that last season we abused May for having represented – we’ve
got Todd.
And I think this is terrific. I detect in some a
certain grudging acceptance that, as times are hard
and survival priceless, if this is what it takes,
then so be it. But I go beyond that. I celebrate
it. The recent loan wheeling and dealing demonstrates
that while Stan may be a wily old dog of a manager,
he’s one capable of learning new tricks. It
tells us that the club will leave no stone unturned
in its bid to improve the squad cheaply. It shows
us that Burnley are thinking smart and turning a
weakness to their advantage.
One of our problems as a club is that we are surrounded
by current Premier League clubs. We’ve got
Blackburn on our doorstep, Bolton and the Manchester
clubs to the south, the Merseyside clubs to the west,
Leeds across the Pennines, and to our north not much
but some lakes and a load of sheep. The north west
population has an embarrassment of football riches
from which to choose. You don’t have to go
too far from our immediate catchment area before
you’re closer to the Premier League than you
are to Turf Moor. This is a problem, but it’s
also an opportunity. In bringing in players on loan
from Blackburn, Bolton and Man U, we’re beginning
to use that opportunity. In hoovering up choice leftovers
from Man U’s table on free transfers, we’re
making our geographical proximity count for us. Todd,
for example, commented that the loan move was ideal
because he didn’t have to travel or stay in
a hotel. The club – in seeking to pull off
a difficult feat of staying both in the first division
and solvent – is making use of a valuable local
resource: the over-large squads of North
West Premier League teams.
This is welcome. It’s also about bloody time.
It’s been a small source of exasperation that
in the past other clubs seem to have found it easier
to do deals with the local top division sides than
we have. For once we’re not bemoaning the fact
that some other club has picked up a gem. Imagine
if Preston had signed Chadwick, or Bradford had borrowed
Todd. We’d all be asking why we couldn’t
do deals like that.
This is not to say the new reality is without its
problems. It is perhaps a little humbling to admit
that at present we can’t compete with our neighbours.
But the name of our game is staying in the first
division until the financial dark clouds blow over,
and hubris won’t gain us any points. Football
is a more temporary game these days. Players come
and go on loan. Glen Little has twice stepped out
of our first team to leave on loan, and his absence
was a necessary part of the deal that brought Farrelly
and Facey to the club. I find the recently flurry
of loan activity in English football a bit bewildering.
All these temporary transfers are going to take some
getting used to, and the number of loans within the
Premier League does, I think, raise questions about
the legitimacy of the competition. But these are
issues for the game as a whole, and not ones Burnley
FC can address – it falls on us to make the
rules work for our benefit. You might wish for a
world in which there wasn’t such a financial
divide between the haves and the rest of us, enabling
Premier League clubs to run vast, well-paid squads
while the majority make ends meet, but as a club
we have to deal with the football world as it is
rather than as we wish it would be.
Then there’s the question of loyalty, which
I feel is a spurious one. There’s precious
little loyalty between clubs and players these days
in either direction. Players will run down contracts
in the hope of a better move, while clubs will release
players to hack down the wage bill. Whether they’re
here for a season or a month, it’s naïve
to expect players to be “loyal”. They’ll
get the best deal, and whether they’re temporary
or “permanent” makes no difference. In
the heat of the moment, when the chance comes over
or the tackle needs to be made, who’s paying
their wages or where they’re expecting to be
playing next month won’t be the first thing
on a player’s mind. For the fans, things do
feel temporary and it isn’t easy to adjust,
but the way things are these days any full time member
of staff can be transferred if the right offer is
made, as we saw with Taylor.
Has our bitter rivalry in the past prevented us
doing deals with Blackburn, even when those deals
would have been to our benefit? I accept, welcome
and applaud the signing of Todd. Is it too much to
hope that this marks the start of a more mature response
to our rivals? Can we accept that, at the moment,
in terms of playing staff and wealth, if nothing
else, they’re streets ahead of us?
The nature of the rivalry changed during all those
long years in which Blackburn were above us. In absence,
it got more ferocious. A generation emerged fired
on stories of a rivalry they had never seen consummated.
Did we let things get out of perspective? There were
times when you got the impression folk were more
preoccupied with hating Blackburn than backing Burnley.
We can’t define ourselves negatively. Is anyone
embarrassed that most of our songs – what singing
we do these days – are about Blackburn rather
than Burnley? Why can’t we offer songs about
how brilliant it is to be a Burnley supporter rather
than what bastards those people down the road are?
We should sing to celebrate our Burnley-ness. We
need to get past our local hang-ups. The rivalry
can’t be the whole story. There is more to
us than this.
Because – and I honestly believe this – this
is a great football club we support. We haven’t
got the greatest team, but we are a great club. We
might have to rely on scraps to sustain our first
division status, to take players on loan, to try
to glean a good player from a thousand trialists,
to find a free transfer bargain, but if that’s
what we have to do, then fine. We’ll get our
ragbag dirty dozen or so from local clubs, reserves
and unexpected countries, and mould them into a team
that endures and prospers. Even better, I like the
realistic, pragmatic, streetwise attitude this entails.
It seems to suit a place like Burnley.
Rivalries are important, but I’m glad that
those who run the club aren’t allowing our
deepest rivalry to obstruct our progress. I am tremendously
encouraged by the response of our supporters to the
new players. It seems people have grasped the new
reality. May has been accepted without question,
and few would disagree that he has improved the team.
Todd, on his debut at Stoke, got songs of support.
Admittedly some of this may come from gratitude that,
after a ropey start to the season, we have two proper
defenders who can stop the other lot putting the
ball in the net, but I welcome the pragmatism of
our approach.
I am happy that we have got hold of some good players
from our local rivals; some permanently, some for
the season, and some for perhaps a short time. They’ve
improved the team. While they’re at Burnley,
those players are nothing other than Burnley players,
and as such they are entitled to our support. So
to Facey, Farrelly – and particularly to Andy
Todd – welcome to Burnley. We hope you enjoy
playing for a great club like us.
