"The Clarets are going up!" - Part three - Premier League lesson one

Things were about to get much more surreal as Wednesday reared its ugly head with apparently shocking news.

What had happened? Had the Daily Telegraph unveiled the Burnley board’s Wembley expenses? Was North Korea pointing a very large missile in the direction of Turf Moor? Had Owen Coyle contracted Swine Flu?

No, but apparently he was off to manage Celtic.

The speculation was mounting from North of the Border that our Master of the Universe was being tapped up to be the Hoops new boss following the departure of Chesney from Corrie look alike Gordon Strachan.

Apparently we were on the verge of becoming “Managerless Premier League Burnley”.

The news was that the job at Parkhead was Coyle’s if he wanted it and according to the jock hacks he most certainly did.

The Scottish press really did whip up a storm, for all their whimsical scribbling they may as well have said that Coyle snuck out to meet Celtic’s Chief Executive round the back of the Wembley bike sheds while Steve Caldwell was lifting the play off final trophy.

They had started a perfect bit of end of season sensationalism, a quiet newsroom’s wet dream.

The news of their claims filtered down on the wire to be picked up by the BBC and Sky.

That’s when people really began to panic.

“Its on the BBC, he’s off.” said someone with a rare statement of unwavering trust in our broadcasting corporation.

Then there was a newsflash on Sky Sport’s News;

“Sky Sports understands Owen Coyle is interested in becoming the next Celtic manager” the info bar read.

Isn’t it funny how that when that little bar turns yellow it can strike such fear in our hearts?

It brings such drama to the narrative. In truth, understanding that a Scottish born manager from a Celtic background might be interested in managing the club he supported as a boy isn’t that interesting. However if you slap a bright yellow background with the text it makes you feel like the Coyle-mobile is already zooming its way up the motorway to join them.

The club and Coyle were quick to quash rumours of his departure, with Chairman Barry Kilby stating a new contract was close to being inked.

The news definitely made my heart skip a beat. Although I was confident Coyle would stay, I must admit it’s hard not to listen when the national media tell you they’re modern day soothers claiming to know the future.

It was seeing the manager deliver his speech at the staff dinner the evening before that made me unable to believe he’d become our Brutus and stab us in the back. Coyle, as he always does, spoke with great enthusiasm and his statesman like demeanour gave no impression he was towing the party line before jumping ship.

The best bit of the whole saga was Celtics former manager Billy McNeill saying Coyle should choose Parkhead as Burnley is a “fucking hamlet” or “wee village” depending on which newspaper you read. And he would know, he watches Celtic play against one virtually every week.

The fact is the Coyle will be managing in the most competitive league in the world next season. He is a Premier League manager and deserves to go up against the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitex and Arsene Wenger. At any other point in his career Celtic would provide the perfect position for a man with the abilities of Owen Coyle, but right now, in my opinion anyway, the job he has at Burnley is bigger than the one at Celtic.

On the other side of the coin, he may go away on holiday and think that he might only get one chance to manage his boyhood heroes and want to cash in while his managerial stock is at its highest.

But that’s not the Owen Coyle we’ve all come to adore and if there are to be no more twists in the tale then it looks like he will guide us into the Premier League next season.

There is no doubt if he continues to be successful even bigger clubs than Celtic will come knocking on our door for his services.

Maybe the “Coylegate” incident will provide us all with a bit of media training ahead of next season. After all, this type of mass scale coverage is something we’ll be receiving on a weekly basis when August rolls around.

The first lesson is simple;

Premier League clubs get Premier League speculation.