Off The Record, with Peter White

THE TV adverts tell us it's good to talk but, unfortunately, not too many football clubs agree with that sentiment.

That's why I suspect yesterday's impassioned appeal by Burnley's Independent Supporters' Association is likely to fall on deaf ears.

Which, from a Turf Moor point of view, would be a great pity.

You don't have to be a football "expert" to sense that Burnley are in crisis. Or if they're not, they are hurtling towards one with the inevitability that night follows day.

And, at times of crisis, you need friends.

Burnley haven't been short of them in recent years. For the past decade, these people have willingly shelled out large sums of hard-earned cash for season tickets.

Their reward? One season - a relegation season at that - in the grandly-titled Division One which is, in reality, the old Second Division. Not much is it. Now, with their manager gone, preceded by his assistant, last season's favourite player having departed for rivals Preston and just one summer signing having been made these folk are beginning to question that "friendship"

The Burnley board appear to me to guard their position jealously - too jealously.

What would it cost them to organise a meeting this week, invite a representative number of fans from each of the different supporters' associations and talk to them, just as the ISA have suggested?

Most people aren't so stupid as to realise there are certain matters which have to be kept under wraps.

But far from doing any harm to explain to the most important faction at Turf Moor, the fans, it might even do some good.

Frank Teasdale and his fellow directors should be pleased that their club's supporters care enough to want to help.

And who's to say they won't have one or two good ideas.

If you start to listen, you sometimes learn something.

Not many football club boardrooms contain a copy of the book "How to win friends and influence people".

It's most unlikely to be on the recommended reading list for directors.

But Burnley should be remembering just who their friends are, or they might find they suddenly start to become fewer in numbers.

I like the way the ISA refer to themselves as the club's "customers", because that's just what they are.

And you know what they say about the customers...they're always right.

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