Do or die
Plus: an old face, and a new one
Hi everyone. No game at the weekend - can’t get relegated if you never play… - but obviously the big story is the departure of Chris Wood to Newcastle United (although claims they now also want to buy James Tarkowski could soon take over from that).
My thoughts on that first up, then we have newsletter debuts from a couple of new signings. Jaron Vail is a writer based in the US and Kevin Robinson was a co-founder of No Nay Never back in the day. As always, get in touch with your views. Cheers!
Do or die
We got a quick answer to the bad pun in last week’s headline: yes, we Wood sell Chris.
But not by choice. The presence of a £25 million release clause in his contract, which even Wood said he did not expect to be triggered, meant Burnley were powerless and lost their record Premier League scorer to a direct relegation rival. Not great, Bob!
Wood made little impact on his Magpies debut at the weekend - a 1-1 draw with Watford that was the ideal result for us - but I think £25m is too low, despite the likes of Gary Lineker being shocked a proven Premier League scorer who helped Burnley to two top-10 finishes and is good for 10+ league goals a season could cost so much.
It is probably fair to point out Wood might not have signed his last contract without a release clause being included, but I reckon he might have fetched more on the market at that time. Release clauses are normally set high to put teams off, like the one James Tarkowski has, not so low that for a team next to us in the table it looks a no-brainer.
Wood has been pretty poor this season but, in the short term, with Maxwel Cornet away at AFCON, it leaves Sean Dyche with very few options for attacking selections.
We can only assume Jay Rodriguez would have started up front had we played on Saturday, but he only managed one Premier League goal in 2021. At 33, Jay is hardly the future but it is almost a case of last man standing with Ashley Barnes not yet fit, Matej Vydra recovering from both injury and Covid, and no youths pushing to start.
The Watford game - if it goes ahead - is one of the biggest of Dyche’s time in charge.
It is do or die.
It’s fine. Everything is…fine?
Jaron Vail
From a Yankee’s perspective, there are two billion reasons why Burnley need to stay in the top flight. If you haven’t heard, NBC will remain the home for Premier League action for next six years over on this side of the pond. That’s a lot of trickle-down money. But, the cheques can only be cashed if you stay up.
Aside from that, the situation Burnley find themselves in is so unnecessary. You would think that the boys in Claret and Blue would easily be able to stay way ahead of relegation debutants Norwich and Newcastle.
As it stands now, Burnley have only amassed 16 top flight goals this season with Wood knocking in just three. This is half of what Cornet has contributed and I feel that he’s going to be carted off injured every time he steps on the pitch.
That’s why Wood’s time at Turf Moor needed to come to an end and, maybe, just maybe, this is a chance to hit the refresh button before things get too out of control.
For one, we know Dyche is a magician and, yes, we fans are asking for just one more rabbit to be pulled out of that ragged top hat. Furthermore, we have competent owners in place. I mean, if reports are correct, selling off a player that rattled the back of the net only three times this season for £25 million isn’t bad.
But now is the time to right the ship. The top of the organisational chart are proven competitors and seem to be on the same page. Can the players do the same? Yes, the talent may be sub-par at best compared the bottom half of the table. Yes, Wood and maybe more mainstays are on their way out. And, yes, this may just be the last ride for the gaffer. Put all that aside, take a breath, and play with relentless abandonment.
They have it in them. This isn’t new territory. So, fellas, post it up on the wall, put it in a PowerPoint, and write it on the palm of your hand: The season begins now!
It can’t get any worse, can it?
Kevin Robinson
As hard to accept as it is, I don’t believe losing Chris Wood is quite as damaging as it might seem. I might as well get the controversial part out of the way right off the bat: This is largely based on the feeling that relegation is looking increasingly likely.
Too pessimistic? Perhaps. But with a gap growing between 17th and 16th, Newcastle making annoyingly smart signings, and our toothless performances showing little sign of improvement, I’m really struggling to see any way out.
Resigned to going down, I do think that losing Wood now could end up setting us up for a better chance at bouncing back.
Years of under-investment are hitting us hardest right now, with an ageing squad with far too many players who haven’t made any meaningful impact for a long time.
As frustrating as it was, we got away with Mike Garlick’s reluctance to bring in new faces because those who were already here still had enough about them to punch above the bottom three. But most of them were already past their peak and on an inevitable, depressing decline.
We actually made some pretty smart signings in the summer - Cornet, Nathan Collins and Connor Roberts all look in the right mould and, crucially, the right age brackets.
But just the three of them - only 1 of whom has actually had meaningful game time - was nowhere near enough to compensate for a squad riddled with players like Barnes, Rodriguez, Jack Cork, Phil Bardsley, Erik Pieters, Dale Stephens and the like: All players who have contributed to our recent successes, but just are not good enough any more. I genuinely believe we need to replace at least half of the squad to have any chance of competing - whatever league we’re in next term. Relegation or survival, massive changes in the summer are going to happen. They can’t not happen.
It’s going to be a very interesting close season - with Cornet, Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil almost certain to follow Wood out of Gawthorpe, possibly Nick Pope too.
And even dropping down a level, we’re still going to need to get rid of a lot of deadweight that’s hanging around the place. We could conceivably go into the start of next season with an almost completely changed starting XI.
We’d probably lose Wood in the summer anyway and - as a summer transfer, from the Championship, with 12 months remaining on his contract - it would very likely be for significantly less than £25m. And with owners who appear unwilling (or unable) to invest, every extra million is going to come in handy.
And for the rest of this season, Wood’s departure opens up the door for Rodriguez and Vydra to prove they deserve to be a part of that new-look team next season.
Neither has really impressed in anything other than a few moments here and there, and if they want to spearhead a renewed challenge next season, they need to show they’re not just here to make up the numbers.
And who knows… Rodriguez could drop into Wood’s spot, offers something a little different, and everything just clicks together. It’s better than just trying the same thing over and over and over, right?
We’ve been pathetic even with Wood in the team, so I’m not sure that being forced to change things up is a particularly bad thing anyway. It can’t get any worse, can it?
Birthdays and anniversaries
Birthdays this week include Andy Cooke (48 on Thursday), Warren Joyce (57 on Thursday) and Gifton Noel-Williams (42 on Friday). Many happy returns, lads.
Our last game #OnThisDay was a 2-0 cup win over Sunderland in 2017. A cup win. I know. Joey Barton! Steven Defour!! Sam Vokes!!! What a time to be alive that was.
Tweet(s) of the week
To try to lift the mood a little, it’s a Newcastle fans on Wood’s debut special edition!
Thought for the day
I’m coming round to the idea of signing Andy Carroll on an emergency freebie…
That’s it for this week. As always, feel free to get in touch with comments/feedback!