It’s Owen Coyle’s second anniversary as Burnley boss on Sunday and whatever happens now, whether he stays at Burnley for a long time or goes on to bigger things, he will be remembered here.
Obviously when he arrived in 2007 not a lot of people knew much about him, although he had done well in Scottish football with St Johnstone.
I have been living in England for so long now that I didn’t know him at all.
I remember in his first few games here a lot of the fans were in two minds about him, but it always takes time when you come in as a manager.
Once he got us playing the way he wanted us to play, we became a tremendous team to watch.
I think Owen’s main quality as manager is the great rapport he has with the players. He gets the best out of them and it looks like they enjoy playing for him.
You can see that when they’re out on the field, players like Wade Elliott and Robbie Blake look like they just love playing for Burnley.
As a former player myself, it does make a big difference if everyone enjoys coming into training.
Owen can have a laugh with them at times, although they know when to get serious.
I had that at Burnley, although I always enjoyed training anyway.
I worked with Brian Miller and then Frank Casper and I enjoyed training under them.
Frank was someone you could have a laugh with and it really helps, because if the players don’t enjoy coming into training it can affect the team.
Scotland have produced a lot of great managers over the years and hopefully Owen will be one of the top ones by the time he’s finished.
Obviously Burnley fans will be keen that he stays at Burnley for a long time to come.
As for my favourites games during his two years in charge, I would have to pick out the two Reading play-off games because no-one expected us to beat them and get to Wembley.
Then obviously the final against Sheffield United, which was the icing on the cake.
They are games people will never forget.
Burnley have been doing well at Christmas a few times in the past but have fallen short, but obviously this time they kept it going and it was a great achievement to get promoted.
Since 1987 the club have been there or thereabouts a lot when it comes to promotion. I think a lot of the managers have done well. Stan Ternent, Steve Cotterill and Jimmy Mullen did good jobs.
It’s not down to luck, but fortunately Owen was the one who did get that promotion to the Premier League.
It certainly was a great decision to bring him in.
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