IT SEEMS incredible, but no one at Turf Moor seems too concerned about the situation.

Do they realise that relegation is now stark reality - that monumental debts could end the football club as we know it?

The new manager was to be the resurgence of a new era. It is now nothing short of perilous - or worse.

When he asked for the job Waddle should have been advised of all playing side activities and statistics.

The huge loss for the past financial year was already known to the board.

They knew also that bank loan was repayable on demand, with interest at 1.75 per cent and monthly instalments commencing from June, 1998, to May, 2005.

If Chris Waddle did not ask questions, he was either stupid or naive, or quite simply desperate for the job - or misled by a board anxious for a high-profile personality.

Carried away by dreams of high expectation, after 11 years of scant regard for supporters, this was the answer. Yet almost instantly, close to £750,000 was made available and spent disastrously on new players of questionable ability with no thought of capital return. The recruitment of Roeder, Woods and Cowans, could not be defended but, again a question: Is everyone on contract?

At any time - unless a clear, definitive end is forthcoming - loan signings are dangerous and the manager's obsession with Creaney was bewildering. If he was so wonderful, why does no one else want him?

In any event the problem is at the other end - where only Wrexham have failed to score in the last 21 matches.

Every man is a debtor to his profession. You fight it out or finish. It is hard work, method and discipline.

Waddle, like Heath, has failed to match the transition from player to management. Again, the greatest single failure is complete inability to man manage.

We need maturity, leadership and common sense from the people shaping the destiny of Burnley FC.

Supporters have that right and they don't get it. And after the Wigan game, every one concerned should crawl away and find some shame for themselves for yet another indignity and humiliation for their once proud and gracious club.

ERIC BATES, Marsden Road, Burnley

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