Smart football
A busy end to the transfer window
After a long break, it’s time to bring back the No Nay Never newsletter. Hello again!
Smart football
The last time I wrote, I called the tactics under Vincent Kompany “dumb football”.
Even in October, it was obvious we were heading for relegation. Kompany seemed utterly clueless and unable to set up a team that could compete in the Premier League.
Recruitment had been spotty, with much of a near-£100 million outlay wasted, but Kompany was not getting anything like enough from the squad at his disposal.
We turned in the same dire displays every week. Like many fans, I checked out.
It’s a long time since had I felt so disengaged with the team. It felt like a random collection of blokes with no connection to each other, or us, playing as mercenaries.
But you know what helps with that? Winning games. Winning games helps.
It’s clear Kompany prioritised his reputation over giving Burnley a chance at survival. It paid off for him with Bayern Munich appointing him (albeit as their 73rd choice).
Burnley took a while to appoint Scott Parker but, two games in, the signs are good.
The football is a smart mix of style and substance. Classy passing moves and niggly fouls. Parker prioritises results. He changes the tactics when they aren’t working.
Burnley battered Luton Town - producing an even more impressive victory on the road than Kompany’s debut at Huddersfield Town - then thumped Cardiff City 5-0.
We were not even close to our best against the Bluebirds (I’d rate the performance a 7/10 at best) but ran out easy winners thanks to a mix of calamitous goalkeeping and accurate shooting from range: we scored five goals from just four shots on target.
Parker made a subtle tweak at half-time after we had been second best before the break. Jay Rodriguez, a surprise pick to replace Wilson Odobert after his sale to Tottenham, was asked to drop wider to find space. It immediately reaped rewards with Josh Brownhill given room to run through on goal and kill the game at 3-0.
Fine finishes from substitutes Zeki Amdouni and Johann Berg Gudmundsson added gloss to the score and ensured we sit top of the table after Parker’s first two games.
There is still work to do. Defensively, there is no doubting our individual quality at the back but the unit will take time to gel, especially if there are further sales.
In midfield, a pairing of Brownhill and Josh Cullen might be outnumbered at times.
And at 35, Rodriguez likely won’t be a regular starter this season but his experience, intelligence, leadership and versatility will be priceless for Parker to call upon.
But the trickiest task for Parker is simply not knowing what his squad will look like…
A busy end to the transfer window
This week, it seems like every time I look at Twitter (which is a lot…) there is a fresh rumour linking one of our players with a move away:
James Trafford to Newcastle United!
Manuel Benson to Leeds United!
Dara O’Shea to Ipswich Town! Or Wolves! Or Brentford!
JGB to… Saudi Arabia!?!?!?!
Vitinho to Brazil!
Ameen Al-Dakhil to the Bundesliga!
Han-Noah Massengo to France!
Wout Weghorst to whoever will have him!
And so on and so on. You get the point. There is a huge amount of speculation.
That’s not even mentioning the seemingly impending departure of Sander Berge, who has been “injured” for the first two games amid speculation over a £20m+ move away.
Prior to Odobert and Scott Twine leaving, a bloated group stood at 35+ players. That’s clearly way too many, so it should be no surprise to see a few being linked with moves.
Some have already gone, with Lawrence Vigouroux and Samuel Bastien sold and Dara Costelloe and Darko Churlinov being sent out on loan, but more will have to follow.
The problem is that players we would probably quite like to shift - fringe lads such as Luke McNally, Michael Obafemi and Hannes Delcroix - are unlikely to be in demand.
Unsurprisingly, it’s our better players that teams would like to buy. Shocking, right?
The business model under ALK Capital requires players to be sold for profits to work.
Odobert going to Spurs in a deal that seemed to come from nowhere shows it in action. We doubled our money on the winger in a year, with potentially move to come.
It seems like we will also make a decent profit on Berge if/when his deal goes through.
That shows that it can and does work, with more money also raised from selling Aro Muric to Ipswich Town, but we cannot afford too many big flops like Mike Tresor.
And forgive me for pointing out - yes, again! I’m a stuck record, I know - that a major reason we need to sell players remains the nature of ALK’s leveraged buyout of the club, which plunged our previously healthy finances into huge levels of debt.
The next few days are sure to be interesting. At the moment, there is enough strength in depth that we look like strong contenders for automatic promotion. That could change if too many sales are sanctioned, though Parker will get his own signings.
Indeed, while I was writing the newsletter we announced the arrival of Bashir Humphreys, a 21-year-old defender from Chelsea, on an initial season-long loan.
But a third straight summer with a gigantic turnover of players presents its own issues. Cohesion and consistency is difficult with a dozen new faces each year.
You can’t argue with being top of the league with nine goals scored in two games, mind. So far so good, but Sunderland will present the sternest test of Parker to date.
Burnley Women also off to a flyer
BFC’s men’s and women’s teams both have maximum points from the season so far.
Burnley Women welcomed a newly promoted Hull City side to the Women's National League Northern Premier Division with a 9-0 shellacking at the weekend.
They’re not top, though, as Rugby Borough Women thumped Halifax Women 10-0.
Having gone close to promotion two seasons in a row, this could be the year Burnley Women make it to the second tier. There has been a welcome change to the league’s structure for this year which means topping the table now gets an automatic place in the Women’s Championship, rather than going into a winner-takes-all play-off match.
Burnley Women play their next two games at Turf Moor (though the official site’s fixtures page hasn’t been updated) on September 8 and 22. KOs are at 2pm and adult tickets in the Bob Lord Stand are £10 but if you go to both matches it’s £15 for the pair.
I don’t know if its feasible to have all Burnley Women’s home fixtures played at Turf Moor, but it would be great to see a good crowd cheering them on next month.
Coming up
I can’t promise a newsletter every week this season, but I am aiming to write regularly.
Future editions will include reviewing Mission to Burnley II (I haven’t been able to watch it all yet) and going behind the scenes on a Turf Moor stadium tour.
As always, feedback on the newsletter is welcome. Just reply to this email with your views and we might feature them in a letters section if we get enough messages.
We take contributions too. If you have an idea for a piece that you’d like to write for the newsletter, drop me a line and we’ll take it from there.
That’s it for this week. It’s good to be back!