CLARETS: Your Shout special

FIRST, let me say how much I agree with Stephen Cummings in his assessment of the situation at Burnley and in particular his belief that the Burnley crowd are being patient with the performance of the Turf Moor management team.

I am writing this an hour after the end of the worst Burnley performance in my recent memory, eclipsing even the inept and disgraceful display against Milwall. Then we could at least console ourselves with the thought that we were beaten by a team who will be in the promotion shake up, which we most emphatically will not. Tonight, there are no excuses.

A word for the coaches.

Stephen Cummings is very charitable.

If Chris Waddle were, say, "Jimmy Mullen" and Glenn Roeder were, say, "Clive Middlemass" this crowd would have been baying for the blood of the management team weeks ago. Poor old Frank Teasdale takes the rap.

As managers, they are showing no signs, at all, of being up to the job. Has there ever been a worse management team at Burnley for results?

We now need new ideas and new money. The Waddle experiment was a brave one. It has failed. Let him learn to be a manager somewhere else.

GRAHAM BOWKER

ggbowker@mcmail.com

LAST night I watched the Clarets well-beaten at home by an average Third Division team.

Not since the wilderness years around '86-'89 have I witnessed such an abject and toothless surrender at Turf Moor.

Yet the players are clearly of far greater ability than those Clarets of a decade ago, and Chris Waddle can no longer argue with those of us who feel that something is innately wrong with the internal chemistry of the club.

As a new manager, it's understandable that Waddle wants his players to play his way, yet surely a more pragmatic approach is required in the light of the present predicament. It's clear that the players can't satisfactorily adapt to his desired playing system, so he must go back to basics, carefully assess exactly where the strengths of the squad lie, and adapt a system that fully caters to those strengths.

One last point - the new regime should be told (if they're incapable of realising) that the hard-man approach of the big-city clubs doesn't motivate the younger players at a family club like Burnley.

It's a different culture altogether, which requires different management skills. Weller and Co shouldn't be terrified of making mistakes, as they clearly are at the moment.

We know from bitter experience just how deeply a football club can be wounded by an individual with the wrong outlook. I sincerely hope that the Waddle-Roeder era isn't heading irreversibly in that disastrous direction.

PHIL WHALLEY, Keele University.

I WATCHED last night's game on TV and I thought it was a disgrace.

The players should hang their heads in shame. I would sack the lot of them. I am sorry I have to call myself a Burnley fan.

What they should do is put them all on performance-related pay. If they don't win they shouldn't get paid. Then we would see some effort from them.

They looked like amateurs. Waddle and Burnley should hold their heads in shame.

MICHAEL CUMMINGS, Russell Terrace, Padiham.

I WATCHED the game on TV. I have been watching the game for 30 years and in my opinion Marlon Beresford is rubbish. There is nothing wrong with the team, it is the goalkeeper. Mr JACKSON, Burnley.

I THINK its pitiful the way they played against Rotherham. They need someone with fight like Vince Overson. It was pitiful against Rotherham and it has been all season.

DAVE WILSON, Garner St Padiham.

IT'S an absolute disgrace and it is entirely down to Waddle and Roeder. There is no point bleating about having no money to spend. What has been spent has been wasted on so-called premiership quality players. If they were that good they would still be there not playing for us.

It is a complete and utter shambles. Relegation is staring us in the face before the end of November and it's absolutely disgusting.

IAN MATTHEWS, Stansfield St, Todmorden.

I HAVE been to every home and away match this season and I'm afraid I won't be going again.

I wanted Chris Waddle and was over the moon when he came but there is just nothing there.

ANN HUDSON, Burnley.

COMMITMENT, effort, team-work, tactics and pride in the job should have been sorted out before the side took the field.

But against Rotherham, Burnley seemed bereft of all these qualities. The ability to motivate players not money to buy them is the key. The buck stops at the manager's door. Some have got it some haven't.

PETER KILCOYNE, Malham Wend, Barrowford.

COME on Chris. There was no game-plan, no desire. Not one of the players deserved to wear a Burnley shirt. I am fed up with excuses. We have to face reality. If we don't get it sorted out we are going down. No-one is too good to go down.

DOUGLAS HARGREAVES, Halifax Road, Brierfield.

THE Clarets were absolutely diabolical. I think it is time for Waddle and Roeder to get out. We have had enough.

Mr KERR, Burnley.

I CAN'T understand it. I saw 10 donkeys wearing claret and blue last night and when I woke up this morning I didn't even have a headache.

DAVID CRYER, Norbury Cresent, Shawforth.

IT was one of the most humiliating experiences I have suffered as a Burnley fan. I don't know what Chris Waddle's sausages were like but they couldn't have been any worse than the tripe he served up last night. HENRY METCALFE, Bowland View, Burnley.

I THINK they played like a bunch of kids on a field. They were rubbish. I am amazed at them. I think Chris Waddle should hang up his boots and concentrate on management.

DARREN STOKES, Florence St, Burnley.

I ALWAYS like to look on the good side. Chris Waddle will have learned about his players during the Rotherham game. And I am sure he will do something about it. I think it will make him a better manager. He has got quality and in time that will come through.

PHILIP BADSLEY, Market Street, Whitworth.

THEY were absolutely embarrassing. I think it is time the board went.

Mr BAILEY, Bacup.

I WAS disgusted with the fans who turned up. The players never once got the support they deserved. There was nothing from the fans. The fans never encouraged the players. Burnley supporters like to brag about how good the support is. But I felt sorry for Chris Waddle and the players.

Mrs RILEY, Burnley.

I HAVE supported Burnley Football Club through thick and thin for more than 50 years, but I have never felt so ashamed of being a Burnley fan than on Tuesday evening when the present Burnley team reached the pits.

Their performance wasn't bad, it was disgusting.

To call themselves professional would be an insult to other hard working footballers. Their lack of effort in their last three games is a disgrace to the club and daylight robbery as far as the fans are concerned.

They should be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act. The club directors should also be prosecuted for their lacklustre support for Chris Waddle, the Burnley manager.

They may regret the day they refused to spend some money, if they drop into the Third Division and support drops off.

No support, no money, no club. Then Burnley Football Club will be going cheap.

But there is time to prevent this happening, by selling shares instead of trying to keep a closed shop.

People with money have tried to invest in Burnley Football Club but have been turned away. This would seem poor business sense, but is there any business sense in Burnley Football Club?

M J WALKER, Woodside Close, Huncoat.

I FULLY agree with Stephen Cummings (LET, November 25).

Not only am I fed up with being told to be patient by Mr Waddle, I am weary of being insulted by the board at Burnley.

It does this time after time by making ill-judged decisions bringing frustration and pain to the fans.

They allowed Waddle to have as his "deputy" the very man who had shown his managerial incompetence so recently at Roeder-ruined Watford.

The results are for us all to see - low player morale, poor performances and an unenviable League position.

The playing staff has, allegedly, been split into divided camps by Waddle's lack of man-management skills and Roeder's similar deficiencies.

The players constitute a squad quite good enough to achieve promotion. But, like the British soldiers in World War One, they are "lions being led by donkeys." Waddle promised he would take the club out of the Second Division. He is certainly living up to his promise, as it seems a near-certaintly that next season we will be saying "hellow again, Hartlepool."

The club is ripe for a takeover now - before the nightmare scenario beckons.

JOHN TOMLINSON, Windermere Avenue, Burnley.

I FEEL Chris Waddle is pushing his luck when he is saying that the fans just need to be patient.

We have been patient so far but now it is getting a bit out of hand.

Chris Woods is one of the new players that he has bought but he isn't giving him a chance.

Lots of people agree that he should put Chris Woods in the net as when he plays in the reserves with some of the first team and we are winning 4-1, you'd think that he would let him try playing in the first team. Another reason why he should play Chris Woods is part of it is down to Marlon Beresford that we are always losing.

RACHEL ATKINSON (aged 12), Harwood Street, Darwen.

THANKS to all playing staff and management at Turf Moor. How we manage week to week without falling out with the club is beyond me.

The game against Rotherham was a classic. If the players feel happy with that they should not wear claret and blue.

Please don't let us slip to Division Three as my pride could not stand it even if yours could. We need Division One football. Premier League is beyond us financially but Division One should be an aim.

Being positive, let's thrash Northampton and Bristol. If Gerry Creaney is in with a few goals we won't object but should we rely on him? Moaning but committed fan.

MICHAEL WRIGHT, St John's Road, Burnley.

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