THE NEW fixture list shows Sheffield United and Burnley going into the season on a level playing field on August 7.

But at the moment, the two sides appear to be at opposite ends of a giant slope in their preparations for the coming campaign.

Our new manager, Steve Cotterill may have made two signings - one of which we can only sit and wait before discovering his identity later in the week.

However, across the Pennines our opening day rivals are signing players like they are going out of fashion!

Five have quickly descended on Bramall Lane - and the calibre of Neil Warnock's new arrivals just shows the difference in the ambition between the two First Division rivals.

Former Chelsea defender Jon Harley, ex-Fulham striker Barry Hayles, record Wigan scorer Andy Liddell and Sheffield Wednesday duo Leigh Bromby and Alan Quinn give them a strength Cotterill can only dream of as he tries desperately to cobble together something resembling a squad.

Naturally it all comes down to money - and I'll lay good odds a lot of Burnley fans are getting pretty peeved at the lack of it coming from the Turf Moor boardroom.

Here we are, having just managed to sign one of the brightest young managers in the game, and yet we are giving him little or no chance to make a real fist of things.

Stan Ternent always seemed to be making public his priority of survival with a small squad - but from where I'm standing things now look to be getting worse, not better.

Persuading John McGreal to join Burnley is a promising start because he is certainly a player who will add some defensive steel.

The manager's comments that he will not sign dross just for the sake of it also helps to alleviate fears in some quarters.

But I'm still frightened stiff by the prospect of Cotterill only being able to bring in three more players and run with a wafer thin playing staff.

The manager has little option but to say he hopes to steer clear of injuries and hopes to get a good start that will hopefully bring the fans back and give him some more money to strengthen.

Well to me that sounds like an awful lot of hoping!

Burnley fans want to dream; they want to hope. But while his hands are tied behind his back in a financial straitjacket, the only thing Cotterill has is no hope!