DAVID Edgar has had his busiest season at Burnley, but he isn’t prepared to stop yet.
As well as being determined to help the Clarets play for pride and finish as high up the Championship table as possible, he is gearing up for a summer of action rather than relaxation.
The Canadian international has a friendly with the USA in Toronto in early June, as part of the centenary celebrations for the Canada Soccer Association. That game prepares them for World Cup qualifying games against Cuba and Honduras.
But the 24-year-old defender doesn’t want the fixtures to end there, as he harbours an Olympic dream.
Canada have yet to secure qualification to London 2012. Their hopes hinge on their tie with Mexico tomorrow and then, if successful, the final against either El Salvador or Honduras.
If they make it, Edgar is eager to be a part of it as one of the three over 23s permitted to be selected.
“They’ve asked us to fill in the forms so if they qualify (tomorrow) and I get the phonecall it would be an unbelievable experience,” beamed the former Newcastle defender, who will be 25 when the Olympics take place.
“I don’t mind playing through the summer. I’ve said since I’ve been here I want to play football and I just want that to continue.
“It’s going to be one of those summers that I can’t take my foot off the gas. I’ll see the family (once the season ends), relax a bit and then get straight back into it.
“I’ve got quite a busy summer,” added Edgar, who is looking forward to renewing rivalries with America.
“It’s great. The Canada U23 team just beat the US 2-0 in an Olympic qualifier.”
But Edgar knows he has a job to do at Burnley first, by restoring some pride in their season.
A run of seven games without a win has turned their play-off ambitions into an all-but impossible task.
Ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Portsmouth, the Clarets remain 10 points adrift of sixth spot but have slipped to 16th in the table - a position that Edgar feels does not reflect the quality in their squad.
“It doesn’t do us justice,” he said.
“Our standing in the league does hurt. Nobody in the team likes losing or drawing. We want to win every game. That’s the mentality we have at this club and that’s what the manager wants in the team.
“It does hurt when we don’t.
“We want to try to pick up as many points as we can to move up the table.”
And Edgar believes a positive end to the campaign can set them up well for next one.
“It helps, especially coming back in pre-season knowing you finished the previous season strongly,” he said.
“It definitely helps and we build from there for the new season.
“We’ll take it one game at a time for the next eight games.
“It’s going to be a tough one tomorrow.”
With the top six effectively out of reach, Edgar’s focus is fixed on moving swiftly back into the top half of the table.
“We always set short-term targets here,” he said.
“The main objective at the beginning of the season was to get in the play-offs and go up. There was a point when we definitely thought we could do that, especially after that (mid-season) period where we did really well.
“But things change and we’ve got to move on from here.”
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