I heart Graham Alexander

I used to hate Graham Alexander.

When I say hate, I mean the immoderate pantomime loathing reserved for players who associate themselves with Preston North End. You know, the type that makes you shout out things like “Alexander you knob” every time he ran by.

But “Grezza” wasn’t just another Preston player; he was North End’s captain supreme and goalscoring fullback.

He chose Deepdale over Turf Moor in 1999 and then went on to become epitome of everything that was good about Preston who were consistently just doing a little bit better than us.

They finished Champions of Division Two as we snatched second place on the last day of the 1999/2000 season and from then on finished higher than us in the Championship table more often than not.

During that nine year spell Alexander became Preston’s longest serving player and bagged 52 goals.

Admit it; you hated him too didn’t you?

But now I love Graham Alexander.

When I say love, I mean as far as one heterosexual man can go without crossing the great big pink line. You know, the firm gentleman’s handshake, the purchasing of a pint and then maybe a quick kiss on the cheek?

My feelings changed on one Wednesday late in August 2007 when the Scottish International turned up at Turf Moor having signed a two year contract.

Two hundred thousand pounds was paid to Preston for his services. At the time it was seen more as getting one over on our rivals, a bit like having it off with Jordan and then sending Peter Andre the video. It was priceless fun, excuse the pun.

“A captain, a leader and a winner” is how Steve Cotterill described the club’s newest incumbent of the number 2 shirt.

And he brought all that and more. Arguably the best of Cotterill’s signings (probably on a par with Robbie Blake coming back to the Turf) Alexander was eventually utilised fully by Owen Coyle in the centre of the park and added grit, steel and composure to the Clarets midfield.

During our promotion winning season Alexander was exceptional, perfecting the holding role and playing almost every minute of every game. The thirty seven year old was able to break up play and let players like Chris McCann and Wade Elliot get forward and express themselves.

If that wasn’t enough the world’s greatest penalty taker bagged a total of ten goals, mostly from the spot, including a key spot kick in the first leg against Reading at the Turf.

A true professional, Alexander is the perfect example of what makes a great Scottish International- he’s English.

Our promotion at Wembley ended a personal hoodoo for Alexander, it was seventh time lucky for him in May as he was finally promoted through the playoffs following three semi final and three final defeats.

He also managed to end that irritating curse I mentioned earlier, as it is now Burnley that are doing better than Preston. And not just slightly better either.

Now having signed a new one year deal at the club, Alexander’s experience will once again be vital next season.

After everything we’ve been through during our blossoming love affair over the last two seasons it looks like our relationship is ready to go to the next level; from the chastity ringed Championship to the erotically charged Premier League.

Originally posted on: http://blogs.soccernet.com/burnley/

Coyle is Claret's most important fixture

This Premier League stuff isn’t bad is it?

In the last few weeks Burnley’s name has been added the Premier League section of various websites whilst looking at the new league table certainly makes for hours of entertaining reading.

If things aren’t strange enough already then look at me; A Burnley Premier League blogger.

Things got even better up on cloud nine this week when the fixtures came out.

A quick glance at the opening few games saw us pitting our wits against four of the leagues top five clubs last season. Following our season opener at Stoke its then games against Manchester United, Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool. Talk about a baptism of fire.

But this is what being in English football’s top flight is all about. The games may be tough but it’s certainly a much better option than the trips to Peterborough, Doncaster and Barnsley that we could’ve been facing.

Last season saw us come out of August with two league points and one goal scored so it won’t be a complete disaster if we were to come out of our opening fixtures with little to show from them.

As ever we will be hoping for Owen Coyle’s team to beat the bookies and pick up a few surprise results; and with Manchester United and Everton notorious slow starters in previous seasons who knows?

More realistically we will all be earmarking games we think we can win, most notably against teams like Wigan, Hull, Stoke, Blackburn, Birmingham and Wolves

October in particular is a month in which we could rocket up the form table with games against four of those teams including our most fierce rivals Blackburn.

Not being old enough to witness a Clarets victory over the “bastards” the games on the 17th October and 27th March at Ewood Park and Turf Moor respectively are a mouth watering prospect.

There has however been the sour taste of defeat during Rover’s relegation seasons in the Championship. This time though it feels like we are more evenly matched, we certainly play the better football than Big Sam’s men and hopefully can finally put one over on our six fingered East Lancashire adversaries.

Perhaps the greatest fixture of all was revealed when Owen Coyle announced that he was definitely a permanent one at Turf Moor having signed his new deal this week. There is little need for me to heap yet more superlatives on our Master of Universe, his record speaks for itself and to be quite frank, I’ve already used every delightfully praising adjective I can find in the bloody dictionary.

If we are to survive in the Premier League we will need Coyle’s craft to carefully add to a team that refuses to accept defeat. The defence certainly needs beefing up, however it seems that it’s the other end of the pitch that we could be strengthening first.

A bid of over a million pounds for Swansea striker Jason Scotland has reportedly been made and turned down. The Trinidadian is certainly a handful and has bagged plenty of goals during his time in England. Concerns have been raised over whether he’ll be able to make the step up and at 30 isn’t the type of player that the board suggested we’d be signing. On the other hand I think he’d certainly have an impact and would be a decent acquisition at the right price.

While all the transfer dealings rumble on and agents continue to pimp around their players, signings will be made and some will be missed. All we can do is sit back, relax and put our trust in the manager- and why shouldn’t we? After all, Owen Coyle is God.

Originally posted on: http://blogs.soccernet.com/burnley/