A fan's eye view of the season, with Stephen Cummings

SO THIS is Christmas, and what have we done?

Well, not particularly well to be honest. The Clarets will be next to bottom of Nationwide Division Two on Christmas Day, and that stark fact alone makes "In The Bleak Midwinter" a more appropriate anthem for this festive period than "Merry Xmas Everybody." These are testing times indeed for all associated with Burnley Football Club.

So what is to be done to stop the rot? Broadly speaking, there appear to be two options. The board can either persevere with the current management team, or they can decide enough is enough, sack Waddle and company and search for a new manager.

Although the dismissal of the current manager would satisfy the bloodlust of a number of supporters, it is doubtful whether it would actually achieve anything in the long term. For a start, the club would have to pay out the contracts of Waddle and his team. And if compensation were to become an issue, the move could prove extremely costly for the Clarets.

Further to this, it is likely that any new manager coming into the job would probably want funds to bring in his own players. The board have already shelled out hundreds of thousands this year. They cannot or will not fund the current manager any more. What are the chances of more money being made available? In any instance, the new gaffer would only have around 20 games or less to turn things around, which is a tall order in anyone's book. In light of the above, pragmatism suggests that the way ahead is for all concerned to rally round Waddle and hope the club is in Division Two come mid-May. The right time to review the situation will be then.

I am not the only one who recognises the need for the current plight to be remedied with maximum haste. Nor am I alone in not having all the answers. Chris Waddle will surely be spending most of this Yuletide scratching his head and searching his soul.

But ultimately the buck stops with the player-manager and his staff. It is they who must, somehow, come up with a solution to our problems. Otherwise, this time next year the club may find itself in an extremely bad state of affairs. Let's hope and pray that doesn't happen. Finally, a very merry Christmas to you all.

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