Ah Bob Latchford!
From The Guardian
Burnley can grace the big time with their small-town outlookIt will be 50 years since the Clarets won the title but survival will be enough when they get back there next season
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Burnley fans celebrate at Wembley after gaining promotion to the Premier League. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics
"Lovely." With one simple word delivered in a rich Lancashire brogue Mark, from the Turf Moor garage, sums up what many football folk beyond this small northern town – population only 73,500 – will be feeling today after Burnley's glorious progression to the Premier League.
Glorious because Burnley play football the good way; have a young, forward-thinking manager in Owen Coyle; and they made it to the promised land courtesy of a 13th-minute zinger from Wade Elliott at a sun-drenched Wembley.
To be at English football's home yesterday was to feel good about the sport while being surrounded by fans like Mark, who had driven down with his mate, Jan, in a 1991 Robin Reliant, and was back at work this morning to declare it as "the best time of my life".
Burnley FC are sponsored by Holland's Pies, play at a stadium which backs on to a cricket ground, and are followed by a local butcher, the ruddy-cheeked Gerry Heys, who in honour of the manager today made "a 100 pound, four-foot sausage called the Coyled Premier Springer which is filled with cranberry, apple and the very best of British pork". He was well on the way to selling out of the smaller versions earlier this afternoon.
It may be easy to overdo the earthy, throwback angle when celebrating Burnley's return to the big time after 33 years, but it feels like their presence has instantly added a refreshing dimension to the "Rich Is Best League".
The word is that Coyle will stay despite Celtic, the club he supports, apparently wanting him to replace Gordon Strachan. This is good news for Burnley and the league next season. Watching how he and this proper football club fares will be fascinating.
Burnley's emphasis on youth — the 17-year-old John Cofie, a German-born Ghanian striker, was sold to Manchester United as a schoolboy two years ago from a set-up now run by Martin Dobson, one of Burnley's star players of the 70s — suggests that if they can learn to breathe quickly in the top-flight the club could thrive.
Next year will be the 50th-anniversary of Burnley claiming their second title in the highest echelon. Hopefully, as 2010 begins to age, the Clarets will have created enough memorable on-field moments to increase the neutral's already burgeoning affection and confirm a second season at the top. That would be a fine way to celebrate the five decades since Trevor Meredith's first-half goal against Manchester City made Burnley champions of the land in 1960.
"The football club puts Burnley on the map," Heys adds. "I used to work as a butcher for Bob Lord, the old chairman, and a lot of people here work hard for the town so this is great for them." Burnley, it seems, is that kind of club. Welcome to the Big League
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/may/26/burnley-premier-league-promotionFrom The Guardian
Turf Moor redevelopment plans will hit Burnley's spending power• Owen Coyle can expect about £15m to spend on players
• Financial commitments will take chunk of promotion cash
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Jamie Jackson
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 May 2009 00.09 BST
Burnley's manager Owen Coyle celebrates his side's play-off final win over Sheffield United but he faces a hard task to keep his side in the Premier League next season. Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Reuters
Burnley's chairman, Barry Kilby, is likely to tell the manager, Owen Coyle, today that his plans for building a squad that can survive in the Premier League next season could be affected by the club's other financial commitments – including plans for the redevelopment of Turf Moor – which should account for at least £20m of the guaranteed £60m income for promotion to the world's richest league.
The club, who won the Championship play-off final against Sheffield United on Monday, has also been sustained by around £6m of debt owed internally to its directors, though it is unclear whether this will be paid back. "We've got to manage our budget – I've got to get used to that much money coming in, we're going to do our damnedest to stay in the Premier League [so] I've got to sit down with him [Coyle]," Kilby said.
The 60-year-old, who has been chairman since 1998, is now likely to go ahead with plans – on hold because of the credit crisis – for a £30m redevelopment of Turf Moor and the training ground at Gawthorpe Hall which will be part funded by around £15m of club money.
Kilby also confirmed that 7,000 season ticket holders will not be charged next season to honour a pledge he gave if Burnley were promoted. "I've no regrets on that," Kilby said. "It's a reward for all our fans."
That will account for a further £2m. Kilby also wants the club to buy back the ground from him, which he owns, for £3.2m. In total this represents £20.2m leaving close to £40m of the new money.
Once the very real prospect of being relegated straight back into the Championship and its reduced income is catered for – the parachute payments are worth up to £25m – then Coyle is likely to receive between £10m to £15m for new players and wages.
Burnley's current financial model is outlined by a wage bill of around £8.8m, a ground which holds 22,546 but has attracted an average of only 12,500, and a 23-man squad which was the Championship's smallest.
Their highest-paid player is Gabor Kiraly, who is on loan at Bayer Leverkusen, and Coyle hopes to move the keeper permanently out to rid the books of his £11,000-a-week salary. Robbie Blake and Chris Eagles, who are likely to be part of Coyle's Premier League plans, earn around £9,000.
Coyle's approach to player recruitment this summer is suggested by his desire to pay around £1m for Rhys Williams, a 20-year-old defender currently on loan at the club, from Middlesbrough. And his stated wish to sign Russell Anderson permanently from Sunderland, for a fee which should not be more than £300,000, once the 30-year-old recovers from a cruciate injury which ruled him out for most of the season.
The former England manager Graham Taylor, who won the play-off final 10 years ago as manager of Watford, knows all about the challenges that face Coyle.
He said: "They are a great day, the play-offs, but, if there is any advice I could give to Owen, it is: 'Have your celebration on Monday night and get back to work as quick as you can. Let the rest of them celebrate.'
"You need to take two or three steps back from what you've actually just achieved and look at what's ahead. People expect you to buy but we've seen so much evidence of clubs that have gone into the Premier League, can't hold in there, have the parachute money and with it the belief they can get back in there. And, when they don't, well you've got Norwich, Southampton and Charlton all going down into League One this season. That ought to be one hell of a lesson."
Kilby has been celebrating Burnley's champagne moment since Monday's triumph at Wembley. Now it is back to business. "We've got to put a strategy together to compete in the Premier League," he added. The hard work starts today.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/may/27/burnley-premier-league-finance
