BRIAN Reid was left stunned by his release from Burnley after being offered a contract earlier in the season.

Reid was one of 12 players handed free transfers by Clarets boss Stan Ternent as he cleared the decks to help with his summer squad building plans.

And the central defender admitted that Ternent's decision had taken him by surprise.

"It came out of the blue. It was the last thing I expected. I'm disappointed as I would have liked to have stayed and I thought I had done quite well over the year," said Reid, who joined Burnley last August after leaving Scottish First Division outfit Greenock Morton at the end of last season. The 28-year-old former Rangers defender initially agreed a deal to keep him at Turf Moor until the end of this campaign.

And he was offered a new contract by Ternent in February having missed only one game since making his debut at Luton in September.

But that deal was no longer on the table when Ternent announced his end-of-season retained list. "I don't know if he thought I had stalled and had other things on my mind and would go to another club but that wasn't the case.

"The only thing I can think is that I never came back to him and he must have thought I wanted to go away," added Reid, who thought contract talks would be resumed once Burnley's Second Division safety had been secured.

However, with the situation up in the air Ternent obviously decided to look elsewhere for defensive reinforcements for next season.

And that spelled disappointment for Reid, who returned to the Clarets starting line-up for the final two games of the season after a knee injury had forced him out of the side. "You don't get a much bigger club than Burnley which has great support home and away.

"I've enjoyed my time here and been made to feel very welcome," he said.

"I have enjoyed my time in England and I would like to stay or maybe go to a Scottish Premier League club if one came in. But I am open to offers.

"My agent said that there has been interest from other clubs and I'm hoping that something will come from it."

As we revealed in later editions yesterday, Reid has been released along with Ally Pickering, Mark Ford, Phil Eastwood, Kevin Henderson, Carl Smith, Neil Moore, Steve Morgan, Colin Carr-Lawton, Frank Kval, Paul Graham and Gareth West.

Ternent said the release of the younger professionals had been "in their best interests" as they had little chance of breaking into the first team at Turf Moor and that he would do everything possible to help them get fixed up elsewhere. Craig Mawson and Michael Devenney have done enough to stay on, however, and will remain with a core of promising youngsters including Matty Heywood, Chris Scott, Brad Maylett and John Williamson.

Senior players Tom Cowan and Ronnie Jepson have also been offered new terms, while Peter Swan, currently recovering from knee surgery, has also been retained.

On-loan midfielder Paul Cook's future appears still to be resolved, although it's clear he has no future back at Stockport County.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.