SOMEONE tell me I'm having a nightmare! First we lose a striker revered by manager, team mates and fans alike, and now we could even lose the manager himself.

Suffice to say this has not been a slow news week and all eyes are now on Steve Cotterill and Barry Kilby in the hope they can agree to disagree and move the club forward when they meet for the second time today.

I'm not entirely optimistic in that respect despite yesterday's comments by Steve after the Brighton game.

When your best player keeps getting sold it can have a demoralising effect and there's no doubt that Leicester City is a bigger club with real attraction, whatever their current league position might suggest.

We will just have to wait and see what happens, but I certainly hope Steve stays at Turf Moor and continues the good job he started.

And in that respect, let's hope he has pulled another rabbit out of the hat with the signing of striker Michael Ricketts.

First impressions are he's a similar bull of a striker to Ade, with something to prove after losing his way in recent years and becoming a bit of a journeyman.

I remember him exploding onto the scene at Bolton and he had a fantastic season that earned him a place in the England squad in 2002.

He was widely ridiculed at the time in the press and on terraces up and down the country.

And maybe that has been a contributory factor in his sad fall from grace.

There's also a generic problem with some of today's footballers, who become financially secure with one decent move and can lose their cutting edge.

But my message to Michael would be to get your head up again and prove your knockers wrong.

Maybe he wasn't quite ready for the demands of international football, but he was sure scoring goals at a fair old rate and at the particular time he joined Sven's England squad on merit.

Four years on, Michael is a footballer desperate for a lucky break. Steve Cotterill has given him the chance to get his career back on track and I'd like to think that at Burnley we have fans who are always willing to give a player a chance.

Let's hope he grabs it with both hands.