Barry Kilby Interview; the Das Football Podcast is here

While Burnley are preparing for life back in the good old Championship after a glorious season in the Premier League I'm back here on Das Football after a season in the sun over on ESPN.

Recently I interviewed Burnley Chairman Barry Kilby for local station 2BR. As what happens when something is given a particular time slot, not everyody gets to hear it, so below I've posted it up online for your listening pleasure. Hope you enjoy it.

Click here to download Barry Kilby interview

World Cup blogs will start soon.

All the best.

Sam

A good way to say goodbye

Well what a way to bow out of the Premier League. For a long time now the fans have needed that sort of result, performance and spirit that the team showed in their 4-2 victory over Tottenham on Sunday.

As supporters we’ve keep going in the face of defeat, each week believing that our turn around was just around the corner. Of course in terms of survival it never came but the way we turned Spurs over in the second half at the weekend helps to reinforce my belief that we will be challenging to make a return to this level come next May.

In the first half it felt like another typical Burnley performance that saw us relegated. Despite some bright spells we conceded the obligatory early goal courtesy of more kamikaze defending, followed by a second to almost kill the game off.

However this is a Burnley side that have begun to find its feet again over the last few weeks and quickly started to make a mense. It was like watching us at the start of the campaign again as our confidence began to grow and grow and once Wade Elliot pulled one back from a fantastically worked move we never looked back.

Many may say Spurs had nothing really to play for following their securing of the Champions League qualification spot for next season in midweek but take nothing away from Burnley, they never gave ‘Arry’s side a minute on the ball and at times played some incredibly probing attacking football.

Martin Paterson in particular starred from the right hand side with a typical workman like display fused with some excellent delivery. I still feel that without his and Chris McCann’s injuries this season the league table may look slightly different right now. The rest of the team rallied too, Bikey and the skipper Caldwell kept things ticking over at the back, while the central three of Elliot, Cork and Alexander dominantly buzzed in midfield.

I know I keep talking about ifs and buts in this piece however those who’ve read this blog over the last few months will testify that it has been my intense belief that if we hadn’t switched to 4-4-2 for vital games against the teams around then we may not be on our way back to the Championship. The same goes for the decision not to play Bikey at centre back until the weekend. For me they are all decisions that form part of the litany of tactical and selection mistakes we’ve made over the past few months.

That swings us nicely onto the future of Brian Laws as manager. I personally still remain undecided. Despite relegation things have definitely picked up for him on the pitch over the past few weeks, a settled side and formation has helped as unlike earlier in his tenure the changes he’s made have pretty much been enforced.

As much as I think we have thrown away survival part of me still thinks he deserves a chance to have a crack at the job away from the immediate glare of the watching eye of the Premier League media’s pressure cooker. It’s definitely been a difficult job for him post-Coyle which is why I’m willing to be more lenient with my analysis of his position.

What we can’t get away from though is that results haven’t been good enough. The failures in tactics and selection in particular have been disappointing and I do remain slightly worried that this naivety could resurface next season in high pressure games now he’s expected to better his best ever finish in the Championship by some way. Mine and others leniency towards Laws may quickly change as we now quickly go from pretty much relegation certainties to expecting a top six finish.

Laws popularity is also a worry, while I try to remain as philosophical as possible in my disappointment with our relegation others do not. The manager was booed by some during the player’s lap of honour on Sunday while the same minority also applauded the Spurs fans chants of Laws imminent sacking during the first half.

Given this I sometimes wonder whether this general lack of acceptance may be too much for him to turn around as a few bad results at the start of next season would heap more pressure on the board to relieve him of his duties after a preseason of allowing him to start to build his own team. Could it be best to get rid now and wipe the slate clean from our Premier League season? I’m still not sure of the answer.

Laws though can go to the board having beaten Spurs and finished above Hull in the table earning the club a tidy eight hundred thousand pounds in the process. This will surely strengthen his case to be given more time, as will the fact he got the club to thirty points and above the rumoured threshold that would’ve seen him paid off on the cheap.

My fear of a mass exodus has subsided slightly although I do remain worried we may lose some key players in the summer. I expect the likes of Tyrone Mears and Steven Fletcher to be courted by others in the Premier League while there are rumours Owen Coyle may be sniffing around the likes of Wade Elliot.

Then there are the out of contract players. With Clark Carlisle seemingly the only one having put pen to paper so far, I’d love to see Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Stephen Jordan, Steven Thompson and Robbie Blake stay to be part of our squad next year.

Finally I’d like to talk about Robbie Blake who looks set to leave Turf Moor this summer. The striker turned wide man is most definitely the most talented footballer I have witnessed during my time supporting Burnley Football Club. Blakey’s flair, quick feet and eye for a goal have brightened up my afternoons watching the clarets and he will be sorely missed if he decides to walk away.

During his two spells at the club I have seen him score some remarkable goals, most notably against Preston in seasons past and Blackburn and Manchester United this term. He is truly the sort of player that I would love to have seen see out his day at Burnley Football Club. I understand his reasons if he does decide to go in search of regular first team football, but I do think he will have a big part to play with us in the Championship if he decides to stay.

As fans we certainly let him know how much he means to us on Sunday and I just hope that was not the last time I see him in Claret and Blue. What I’d really like to say to Robbie is that he could move and not achieve first team football all next season wherever he goes, but what I do know is that if he remains a Burnley player every single fan will sing his name and will him onto the pitch whenever he is not in the team.

Sometimes it is definitely better the devil you know and I hope that he doesn’t act in haste to leave a club that holds him in such high esteem. If it is to be the end then I think everyone will join me in saying thanks for the memories and agree that Robbie Blake will always be a claret.

Down but not out

It’s taken a while in trying to sit down and give our relegation from the Premier League the justice it deserves and for that I apologise. In reality I should be making the most of this platform as within a month I too will fall through the Premier League’s trap door via the ESPN Soccernet’s Correspondents league table.

I said prior to Sunday’s game that if we were relegated I’d take off my shirt and cry like one of the many fat Geordies I saw on my T.V screen last year when Newcastle went down. Although Liverpool sent us packing back to the Championship it didn’t happen. Sadly I don’t have the tattoos or big enough man breasts to do those boys on the Tyne any justice.

Although it is extremely disappointing to be relegated to the Premier League our fall from grace is softened greatly by our healthy bank balance. After seeing the team I love struggle to combine survival and success on the pitch over the last few years it is amazing to see Burnley Football Club in such a strong financial position.

It has been a joy to watch our small town club go toe to toe with the leagues big boy and even better to turn some of them over, but the way we set up to tackle the Premier League was always going to prove to be more prudent than potent. We go down not only able to compete on the pitch against the rest of the Championship, but for the first time ever we are able to challenge some of the leagues bigger clubs for the best players in terms of budget.

On the whole the season has been an amazing experience, growing up I never thought I’d see the day my team beat the likes of Manchester United in a league match. Of course there are some regrets and little frustrations that eat away at you. In those quiet moments you think about what would’ve happened if we hadn’t suffered the disruption of Owen Coyle leaving? What if we’d have picked up an extra point here, or a win there? And particularly for me, the sadness that we are down with two games left to play.

All season I’ve said that if we go down I’d like it to go down to the final day, then we could go back to the Championship knowing we pushed those around us to the limit. Unfortunately, the likes of West Ham have pulled themselves clear of relegation when in reality ourselves and Hull have not taken advantage of their inability to get results over the last few months.

Looking at the way we played against Liverpool I genuinely believe that if we’d have got that starting eleven set up in that particular way earlier in Laws’ tenure we might still have a chance of staying up. The energy which we showed would’ve been enough to get us wins against Wolves and Portsmouth at home and probably one or two other results too. Instead the manager persisted with 4-4-2 more often than not until that hammering by Manchester City.

That six one spanking and the home defeat to Rovers a week previous will go down as the two major lows on the pitch during the campaign but looking back there are so many more positives to take. I’ve already mentioned the Manchester United victory; then there were the wins over Everton and Sunderland at home, a tremendous night at Turf Moor where we drew with Arsenal and of course our first away win at Hull.

Liverpool weren’t four goals better than us on Sunday but the game proved another harsh Premier League lesson. Our two main faults this season have been defensive lapses and not taking our chances; against Liverpool it was chances squandered in the first half that cost us. The score line didn’t reflect the way we played and the passion that was on show but in the end it didn’t matter as without those three points we were down anyway.

The major low off the pitch is obviously the whole Owen Coyle scenario. Whether he was right or wrong to go our former deity jumping ship in January devastated the football club. In fact the whole town was left rocked as he and the majority of the coaching staff also went “sideways” to the Reebok.

For me he will always be remembered for the remarkable job he did in taking Burnley Football Club into the Premier league. It is a feat that should never have been tainted but sadly it has been as I will always look back on what might have been if he had shown us the loyalty I think we all feel we deserved. Whether we did or not is a different story; football is a fickle game and in truth both Owen and Burnley got what they wanted from each other. We secured our future with a dream season in the Premier League and he got to become a top flight manager beyond this season.

Would we have stayed up with Coyle still in charge? I think we would have. We may have been on a bad run that continued further after he left but with the signings he took to Bolton and the way he picked us up from a poor run of form last season I think he’d have got us getting results again.

That’s not a dig at Brian Laws either, in my view the job he inherited was much more difficult than the one Coyle vacated. Laws has tried his very best to keep Burnley up against a backdrop of rising unpopularity, tales of infighting and post Coyle gloom.

Sadly we lost vital home matches against Portsmouth and Wolves and drew with Stoke when in reality considering our away form we had to take a minimum of seven points from those three fixtures. From then on the gradient on which we were fighting our battle for survival was dramatically increasing week by week.

There is no doubt that the Premier League is an extremely tough place to be. With fewer games to get results that millions of pounds depend on we have often found ourselves up against teams that have spent big in order to simply get their hands on their next paycheque. It’s a viscous circle that is bad for football, especially when you see the likes of Portsmouth and Hull who like us came to the Premier League after spells in the wilderness and blew it all.

Out of the three relegated clubs Burnley will be in the strongest position for a return back to the division next season. Whether that can be achieved is another thing but I am sure that we’ll give it our best shot. Promotion last season was the beginning of a new chapter it the life of Burnley Football Club and I’m glad to say relegation won’t be the end of it.

Whether Brian Laws will be the man at the helm remains to be seen. I have thought he will be given the chance to build his side next season but now I am not so sure. With talks set to take place at the end of the season and rumours abound of points clauses in his contract which could see him paid off on the cheap may make the decision easier for the board.

Talk of a Europa League place if Fulham win the competition in a couple of weeks have also added to this bizarre campaign. Although I would be delighted to see Burnley venture into Europe once more deep down I do feel the place would be better offered to the likes of Everton or whoever manages to finishes highest. Despite this, I’ve still got my “Former Soviet States” holiday brochure on order ready to check on availability for potential destinations for the qualifiers in July.

In all seriousness, I want our only priority to be making ourselves a force in the Championship next season. If that is going to happen we must add to our squad, fight to keep our best players and most importantly learn to win again. There are pros and cons to Europe, it may help attract a better standard of player and help keep the ones we have but it could also go the other way and stunt performances on the pitch.

Whatever happens with that I the future is bright, I remain sure of that and with two games to go in our Premier League campaign I urge everyone who has an interest in the football club to go out on a high.

It has been a real roller coaster ride and one I have enjoyed immensely. Being given the platform on this site to speak about Burnley to a worldwide audience has been a joy. Everyone who has read my words over the season will know how much it has meant to see my team reach the Premier League against all odds. Words can not describe how proud I am of all Burnley Football Club has achieved over the last eighteen months; in fact just thinking about it now is bringing a genuine tear or two to my eyes.

Up the Clarets and remember, Burnley will be back.