If he earns 2 mill a year that’s 38,461 a week so it’s not twice his Burnley wage.

Makes his debut today.

The fact he’s playing today adds credence to the fact there’s way more to him leaving than just football. It’s not an issue from my perspective, he’s only human and home is were the heart is.....

Awayfromburnley wrote:The fact he’s playing today adds credence to the fact there’s way more to him leaving than just football. It’s not an issue from my perspective, he’s only human and home is were the heart is.....

Maybe, but maybe there is a higher fitness level required in the PL?

So was fit - I'm not surprised

There's being fit and then there's Dyche fit. Being able to run around a lot is more important than technical ability in a Dyche team.

Looks fit to me and running around on my Skybet live stream

jrgbfc wrote:There's being fit and then there's Dyche fit. Being able to run around a lot is more important than technical ability in a Dyche team.

Unfortunately there is some truth to that. Being big and strong is fine to some degree but against certain teams you have to be able to mix it up with some fast ball carrying and quick interplay. We play virtually the same team with the same subs all of the time regardless of opposition ( excluding cups we just play to get put out )

I’m not surprised that no one has enquired about SDs services as per MGs interview recently.

jrgbfc wrote:There's being fit and then there's Dyche fit. Being able to run around a lot is more important than technical ability in a Dyche team.

No it’s not. It’s important that our players are able to run around a lot and have technical ability. Our mixture of work rate and technical ability has been key to our success under Sean Dyche.

It’s the same stupid kind of comment as those who say that Dyche prefers wingers who can defend than attack. It’s simply not true. He expects them to be able to do both, because if our wingers can’t defend then guess what will happen.

jrgbfc wrote:There's being fit and then there's Dyche fit. Being able to run around a lot is more important than technical ability in a Dyche team.

Bored of hearing this dyche fit bullshit to be honest - all pros are fit

Was ring rusty and said after the game he’s only at 60-70% match fit but the manager wanted him to play. Substituted after an hour and still way off his best but it was his first game after 8 months after all

BOYSIE31 wrote:Bored of hearing this dyche fit bullshit to be honest - all pros are fit

Quite right our squad are no more or less fit than any other European top flight outfit . Aerobic and Anerobic training is pretty generic now the world over and conditioning aside there’s little between the champ and prem for out and fitness

Well done Steven. Stay fit and have a great career.

Thank you for being a Clarets legend.

I said so many times that not all Defour's issues were physical. The fact he has played weeks ahead of where he was supposed to be with Burnley just supports this. The bloke was a fraud and a wage thief. Sadly some people believe him to be the best player since McIlroy. Good fecking riddance to his £2m a year wages for sitting in the stand or on his yacht

Herts Clarets wrote:I said so many times that not all Defour's issues were physical. The fact he has played weeks ahead of where he was supposed to be with Burnley just supports this. The bloke was a fraud and a wage thief. Sadly some people believe him to be the best player since McIlroy. Good fecking riddance to his £2m a year wages for sitting in the stand or on his yacht

How is it Defours fault that Dyche wouldn't pick him and hid behind the not fit enough excuse?

Herts Clarets wrote:I said so many times that not all Defour's issues were physical. The fact he has played weeks ahead of where he was supposed to be with Burnley just supports this. The bloke was a fraud and a wage thief. Sadly some people believe him to be the best player since McIlroy. Good fecking riddance to his £2m a year wages for sitting in the stand or on his yacht

Utterly moronic comment.

Herts Clarets wrote:I said so many times that not all Defour's issues were physical. The fact he has played weeks ahead of where he was supposed to be with Burnley just supports this. The bloke was a fraud and a wage thief. Sadly some people believe him to be the best player since McIlroy. Good fecking riddance to his £2m a year wages for sitting in the stand or on his yacht

And I thought you reserved all your awful vitriol for Scousers.

1. What issues does Defour have that weren't physical? Could you inform us?
2. Already said he's 60/70% and that's for the Belgian League. No way would he have been able to play in our league at that level. He wasn't close to being ready here.
3. Fraud and a wage thief? Really? Would you care to explain?
4. Best since McIlroy - agree with you on that, he's not, I think only one poster suggested that.
5. I'm not aware that he has a yacht.

For me, there's a real sadness to his departure. He is clearly an outstanding player and we saw that during the first half of the 2017/18 season. But he has both injury and personal problems that has meant a return to Belgium is best.

Good luck. I think we were very fortunate to have a fit Steven Defour even if it wasn't for very long.

Herts Clarets wrote:I said so many times that not all Defour's issues were physical. The fact he has played weeks ahead of where he was supposed to be with Burnley just supports this. The bloke was a fraud and a wage thief. Sadly some people believe him to be the best player since McIlroy. Good fecking riddance to his £2m a year wages for sitting in the stand or on his yacht

Abso-bloody-lutely ridiculous comment Herts ....

BOYSIE31 wrote:Bored of hearing this dyche fit bullshit to be honest - all pros are fit

How do you think the rest of us feel about your whoppers?

did they win the game?

Interesting that a few prominent posters on this board were stating he was unwilling to play when the club thought he was fit during his first season here.

Well I have some memories which will stay with me for the rest of my life, so I thank him and wish him the very best for him and his family. I hope he returns to say hello one day.

diamondpocket wrote:did they win the game?

They won 2-1 at Anderlecht.

Lest you think that's good Anderlecht have had a poor start to the season:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/be ... ague/table" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know it's all getting a bit tetchy here and we have to be accept that we'll never be privy to what is actually the whole story, so much of it is pointless arguments, but "on the surface" it seems that Defour did at some point suffer injuries and at least one was quite bad and lengthy, but it also seems clear that somewhere along the line his "will" to stay in England and play for Burnley faded and that definitely became a factor. Good luck to him and we definitely did the right thing bringing the whole saga to an end, but possibly should have done so a bit earlier.

ClaretTony wrote:And I thought you reserved all your awful vitriol for Scousers.

1. What issues does Defour have that weren't physical? Could you inform us?
2. Already said he's 60/70% and that's for the Belgian League. No way would he have been able to play in our league at that level. He wasn't close to being ready here.
3. Fraud and a wage thief? Really? Would you care to explain?
4. Best since McIlroy - agree with you on that, he's not, I think only one poster suggested that.
5. I'm not aware that he has a yacht.

For me, there's a real sadness to his departure. He is clearly an outstanding player and we saw that during the first half of the 2017/18 season. But he has both injury and personal problems that has meant a return to Belgium is best.

Good luck. I think we were very fortunate to have a fit Steven Defour even if it wasn't for very long.

Ha im not aware he has a yacht - made me chuckle this morning

I must say I have a number of issues with this. Firstly if he was injured whilst with us and a little while off being fit to play how come he can now play for Antwerp. And please spare me the Dyche fit drivel. Secondly, if, as we are meant to believe he had unspecified personal problems that surely must have manifested themselves many months earlier, why did we not get rid during the summer and then get to grips with improving the midfield. After all this is an area that most fans agree needs to be improved substantially.

Incidentally, if D4 isn’t the best since McIlroy, who is?

Dobson?

Steven?

Just askin like...

bobinho wrote:Incidentally, if D4 isn’t the best since McIlroy, who is?

Dobson?

Steven?

Just askin like...

Van Der Schaf followed by Papadopoulos, Berisha, Vossen, Hennings and Bikey.

We are brilliant at uncovering, developing and managing foreigners.

Not sure why we have to have such vitriol for one of our recent players that added to our success. The money argument is always mentioned but:

He was a millionaire before he met us
The decision to join Burnley would most likely be football based
Pretty sure he didn’t want the unfortunate injuries he suffered with us

Hibsclaret wrote:Not sure why we have to have such vitriol for one of our recent players that added to our success. The money argument is always mentioned but:

He was a millionaire before he met us
The decision to join Burnley would most likely be football based
Pretty sure he didn’t want the unfortunate injuries he suffered with us

I think most are just exasperated with what are a peculiar set of events. Such as my musing above. I can understand people's frustrations though, just not the awful comments made by herts further up the thread.

Corky wrote:I think most are just exasperated with what are a peculiar set of events. Such as my musing above.

He was some way from being fit and it will be interesting to see if there is any reaction to him playing for an hour yesterday in a league where it is much easier to play than it is in the Premier League. As in being meant to believe there are personal issues, there obviously are and they are his business. As for getting rid, he was under contract and it needs both sides to want that. Are you proposing that we should have paid him a year's salary to 'get rid'?

I do know that he was being forced to travel back to Belgium quite a bit and I do know that he wasn't considered fit to be involved in full training here. What he does now for RA has no bearing on us or what he did or didn't do here. He had a very bad knee injury that required surgery. He came back but had further problems with a calf injury.

He's gone, time to move on no matter how much or how little he plays for his new club.

Sean Dyche emphasises the importance of the players' wellbeing. Obviously something wasn't quite right for Defour and we've done the right thing by letting him go.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Van Der Schaf followed by Papadopoulos, Berisha, Vossen, Hennings and Bikey.

We are brilliant at uncovering, developing and managing foreigners.

Whilst I know he's not a foreigner Tarkowski must surely be added to that list - the best midfielder we've got but SD doesn't know it yet.

(according to one who is no longer on this board of coarse)

IanMcL wrote:Well I have some memories which will stay with me for the rest of my life, so I thank him and wish him the very best for him and his family. I hope he returns to say hello one day.

This is so far over the top it is untrue.

He will never think of us again. His girlfriend rescued him from being pilloried when she said the Burnley fans were brilliant towards him, when he made gestures to them when being subbed.

Good player, yes. Best since Mcilroy? Hardly. You can't play a few games and be a legend. We smirked at Coyle being a Bolton legend. Whats the difference?

I dont get the different league argument either - football is a physical game and you can either participate or you cant - simple

I accept the premier league is a better standard and maybe quicker but cmon he could have come on as a sub and played is way into the team.

He had other issues and personal ones and we have to respect these - but like someone else said this should have been sorted in the summer.

So in all this the management have basically lied to the supporters - why not state the truth from the beginning.

BOYSIE31 wrote:why not state the truth from the beginning.

because it is likely that "the truth" (sic) may have hampered our other recruitment in the summer - if other clubs knew we'd "lost" Defour the asking price would have been even higher as we would have been desparate. As it happens, in this instance, it had no direct affect on our recruitment, but you and others like you need to understand that the fans don't need to know anything and everything about our players and the recruitment process - we just need to know that the club is doing what is best for the club.

Rick_Muller wrote:because it is likely that "the truth" (sic) may have hampered our other recruitment in the summer - if other clubs knew we'd "lost" Defour the asking price would have been even higher as we would have been desparate. As it happens, in this instance, it had no direct affect on our recruitment, but you and others like you need to understand that the fans don't need to know anything and everything about our players and the recruitment process - we just need to know that the club is doing what is best for the club.

Good point but he could have still left how he did and when he did with no fee invloved

Either way he has gone so lets move forward and get his replacement in on the 2nd jan

BOYSIE31 wrote:I dont get the different league argument either - football is a physical game and you can either participate or you cant - simple

I accept the premier league is a better standard and maybe quicker but cmon he could have come on as a sub and played is way into the team.

He had other issues and personal ones and we have to respect these - but like someone else said this should have been sorted in the summer.

So in all this the management have basically lied to the supporters - why not state the truth from the beginning.

You're accusing the club of lying to the supporters, but what they actually did was protect their employee and supported him throughout and then ensured he left the club in a manner that suited both parties and more importantly didn't paint the club in a bad light.

They handled it the correct way, which most people won't have an issue with apart from the idiots....

'Well I have some memories which will stay with me for the rest of my life, so I thank him and wish him the very best for him and his family. I hope he returns to say hello one day'

Chip Harrison wrote:This is so far over the top it is untrue.

Not sure which section of my statement matches the description.

I do have memories and unless I get dementia, they will stay with me.

I do thank him and wish him and his family well....he and they deserve that.

I do hope he returns to us to say hello. Surely he would be made welcome by us all?

I simply do not get this Defour is a Clarets Legend nonsense. I guess my definition of a Legend is different to some on here. We have had many `legends` at Burnley but Defour was not one. Was he a very good player ? Yes. Was his heart truly with Burnley FC. Doubtful. Was he a pro doing a job for money ? Yes. Was he physically fully committed to Burnley ? No. Was he in the top 20 best Burnley players ever ? Probably not. Is he a Burnley legend . No. Nothing personal against him and I hope he is happier back home in Belgium than he was in Lancashire and continues to play football at the top level.

boatshed bill wrote:Sean Dyche emphasises the importance of the players' wellbeing. Obviously something wasn't quite right for Defour and we've done the right thing by letting him go.

Probably the fact that Antwerp play controlled, civilised football, whilst Prem League charge up and down like raging bulls.

basil6345789 wrote:Probably the fact that Antwerp play controlled, civilised football, whilst Prem League charge up and down like raging bulls.

Very likely.

Defour played again today.

We really did get our pants pulled down there, and he's still a legend ( in some fans eyes)

He has said previously, that he is not fully fit, however, the manager asked him to play, so he does.

Sean Dyche does not 'play to get fit'.

Herts Clarets wrote:I said so many times that not all Defour's issues were physical. The fact he has played weeks ahead of where he was supposed to be with Burnley just supports this. The bloke was a fraud and a wage thief. Sadly some people believe him to be the best player since McIlroy. Good fecking riddance to his £2m a year wages for sitting in the stand or on his yacht

Total crap

Doesn't take into account anything to do with the standard, the physicality or the fact that he was pretty much match fit when he left us.

Wage thief is such a silly thing to say

IanMcL wrote:He has said previously, that he is not fully fit, however, the manager asked him to play, so he does.

Sean Dyche does not 'play to get fit'.

Defour played a full 90 mins yesterday ( 29th)

We need to be signing their physio.

Nonayforever wrote:Defour played a full 90 mins yesterday ( 29th)

We need to be signing their physio.

Or just accept he isn't here anymore and move on

claretonthecoast1882 wrote:Or just accept he isn't here anymore and move on

i for one was interested to learn this so cheers nonayforever

Stalbansclaret wrote:i for one was interested to learn this so cheers nonayforever

But not interested enough to look for yourself on their match report ? ok