IF we never got promotion under Coyle

[ClaretsPadiham]

What would have happened in the years up untill now ??

The club was in a very bad state I believe and the promotion saved us massively.

I’d say we would have eventually got relegated to League 1 and spent a few seasons there and become a Rotherham, Wigan type club yo-yo-ing between the top of League 1 & Bottom of the Championship.

We would still have have old outdated infact terrible training facilities.

Gates would of dropped below 10k consistently.

We got very lucky getting promotion in 09 when we was faves to be relegated, footballs a funny old game just a thread for people to ‘imagine’ what things COULD have been like ??

[claptrappers_union]

File under Preston North End

[Goliath]

Wed have sold our assets on the pitch and gone back to penny pinching so its more than likely that we would have been relegated to league 1 at some point
That Championship year under Coyle will never be topped as my favourite season. High tempo, high pressing, gung ho football with flair, fantastic

[beeholeclaret]

File under Preston North End

“Surely things would not have been so bad?”

.

[claret wizard]

That season was great, though our average home gate was 12,700, up from 12,100 in 07/08. By the season Eddie left and Dyche came we were back at 12,900 average attendance, so the impact on crowds of one season in the sun was minimal. Also off the pitch we didn’t build Barnfield until after the 2014 promotion, we also didn’t do any significant ground development. On the pitch we spent money on Fletcher, Bikey, Nugent’s loan, Easton, Edgar, in fact, no one we made any massive profit on, so little impact. We bought the ground back, paid off Directors loans and gave away free season tickets. Again no legacy stuff there apart from the ground, but we did have a secured tenancy. The most long lasting impact of that promotion was making people believe we could do it. The 2014 promotion was far more impactful, our attendances haven’t dropped back since then, we have the training ground and we’ve pushed through players at a profit.

[Rowls]

I think that "file under PNE" is a bit optimistic.

It might have been closer to Blackpool.

[Bosscat]

I think that "file under PNE" is a bit optimistic.

It might have been closer to Blackpool.

Or Bury they way some are talking ...

[steve1264b]

PNE have the Hemmings family putting in at least 4 million a year just to keep them in the championship.

We would be like Barnsley!

[claptrappers_union]

I was going to say Blackpool, but they did achieve a promotion to the Premier League

I think we would've stayed a mediocre Championship / League One team

Like Barnsley, Preston, Ipswich

[claptrappers_union]

PNE have the Hemmings family putting in at least 4 million annually to keep them in the championship.

We would be like Barnsley!

The thing is, you can pay millions to keep the club afloat. But at the end of the day, recruitment, players and results win promotion. Look at Blackburn Rovers, for instance.

Preston was unlucky in the early 2000s. They blew the chance of the Premier League a few times.

Steve Cotterill built the foundations, and then Coyle took it that bit further with a bit of financial injection from Brendon Flood - I know there is more to it than that, but I'm stating it was ‘lightning in a bottle’ that just worked for that time.

Investing the Premier League money back into the club was the right thing to do and they was a buy-in from Barry Kilby at the top, right through to the supporters, even with the free season ticket campaign. It was only when Coyle the figurehead of the club ditched us, it rattled everything because I felt we were all in it together and he reneged on everything we were working on.

I feel the same feeling with this current team. Although I have a few reservations with ALK but I can see the overall vision, flipping young talented players, with VK playing the way he wants to play and building the clubs reputation.

We've not had that lightning-in-a-bottle feeling yet though, but I think it'll come if we keep sticking with the process, even if it means a relegation.

[Goliath]

That season was great, though our average home gate was 12,700, up from 12,100 in 07/08. By the season Eddie left and Dyche came we were back at 12,900 average attendance, so the impact on crowds of one season in the sun was minimal. Also off the pitch we didn’t build Barnfield until after the 2014 promotion, we also didn’t do any significant ground development. On the pitch we spent money on Fletcher, Bikey, Nugent’s loan, Easton, Edgar, in fact, no one we made any massive profit on, so little impact. We bought the ground back, paid off Directors loans and gave away free season tickets. Again no legacy stuff there apart from the ground, but we did have a secured tenancy. The most long lasting impact of that promotion was making people believe we could do it. The 2014 promotion was far more impactful, our attendances haven’t dropped back since then, we have the training ground and we’ve pushed through players at a profit.

Not sure about this, the team Eddie Howe built for Dyche with the parachute payments was the legacy. If we don't get the initial promotion, we dont sign Trippier, Ings, Austin, Shackell, Marney etc etc. We also got the new pitch which was desperately needed and as far as I know we still use that today

[Quickenthetempo]

That season was great, though our average home gate was 12,700, up from 12,100 in 07/08. By the season Eddie left and Dyche came we were back at 12,900 average attendance, so the impact on crowds of one season in the sun was minimal. Also off the pitch we didn’t build Barnfield until after the 2014 promotion, we also didn’t do any significant ground development. On the pitch we spent money on Fletcher, Bikey, Nugent’s loan, Easton, Edgar, in fact, no one we made any massive profit on, so little impact. We bought the ground back, paid off Directors loans and gave away free season tickets. Again no legacy stuff there apart from the ground, but we did have a secured tenancy. The most long lasting impact of that promotion was making people believe we could do it. The 2014 promotion was far more impactful, our attendances haven’t dropped back since then, we have the training ground and we’ve pushed through players at a profit.

We were losing 4m a season in the championship, it was absolutely vital we cleared all the director loans as they weren't massively well off.
That season in the prem was massive for us. Ending it with Laws in charge and a split fan base less so.

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

The Coyle season was absolutely superb to watch! Lifted the town.

[boatshed bill]

The Coyle season was absolutely superb to watch! Lifted the town.

Really exciting football, and suddenly we were on the up.

[ksrclaret]

Even Sheff Utd were relegated a couple of seasons later after losing the PO Final against us. I dread to think what would have happened to us following a relegation to League 1.

The 2008/09 season had an air of magic about it that saved us from having to find out.

[CoolClaret]

It was huge - gave us that belief that it wasn't fantasyland and absolutely gave the whole Town a boost!

I genuinely never thought that i'd ever see the Clarets play in the top flight ever. It really was magical stuff.

I think that season and as some above alluded to re the Dyche first promo season/season in the PL really brought in new eyes to the club - to me it seems the sort of generation under me gave birth to a lot more Burnley fans, imo. I think the support levels now from sort of 10-25 year olds is a lot stronger now in the area than it had been before... A lot less inclined to support one of the 'big' clubs than I saw when I was younger.

Definitely a much more age diverse crowd at both home and away games - at least that's the impression that I get.

[Bosscat]

There is no doubt that Coyle play off season saved BFC and took us to the promised land ... but the way Coyle dumped us in the new year just after Christmas and those 5 words "Bolton are a bigger club" I can never forgive ...

I say the 3 promotion seasons we had were much more enjoyable ... first one finishing 2nd to Leicester and then the 2 Championship wins were better for me ...

[Spijed]

I always wondered what would have happened if we'd have got to Wembley in the League Cup.

Would we have maintained our play-off push, or would getting to the final been too much of a distraction?

Basically, do we have to thank Roman Pavlyuchenko for now being a regular (sort of) in the Premier League?

[Goliath]

There is no doubt that Coyle play off season saved BFC and took us to the promised land ... but the way Coyle dumped us in the new year just after Christmas and those 5 words "Bolton are a bigger club" I can never forgive ...

I say the 3 promotion seasons we had were much more enjoyable ... first one finishing 2nd to Leicester and then the 2 Championship wins were better for me ...

I don't think any of them lit up the town as much as the first one personally. It maybe because I was nearly 18 at the time so was going into town a lot at the weekends. It was absolutely buzzing by the end of the season.
I'm sure some on here will remember the scenes on the streets outside Pharaoh's after we beat Bristol City at home. A couple of people started chanting across the street, 20 minutes later all the bars were empty and there was basically a full scale street party happening. Fantastic scenes, with half of the first team squad being out there as well.

[Bin Ont Turf]

I think Goliath is over egging it. Yes it did bring great joy but the only Burnley game I've ever left at half time was in that season under Coyle.

We did play with an exciting freedom and the Wembley trip was just brilliant. Once the momentum was there you felt that there was no stopping us.

But we scraped into the play offs and if it wasn't for the very many 'wonder' goals we'd have not made it.

It was exciting and in the end kept us afloat for a bit. But 2014 is the one season that beats most and is more of a reason for where we are now.

[Goliath]

I think Goliath is over egging it. Yes it did bring great joy but the only Burnley game I've ever left at half time was in that season under Coyle.

We did play with an exciting freedom and the Wembley trip was just brilliant. Once the momentum was there you felt that there was no stopping us.

But we scraped into the play offs and if it wasn't for the very many 'wonder' goals we'd have not made it.

It was exciting and in the end kept us afloat for a bit. But 2014 is the one season that beats most and is more of a reason for where we are now.

We scraped into the playoffs because of our crap run at the start when we were still working out our system and the dodgy run we had around the semi final games. As a team we were the 3rd best in the league imo which is why we beat 3rd place Sheff Utd 3 times out of 3.

[aggi]

Probably the best case would have been we'd have continued to bob round the lower revs of the championship.

More realistically though we'd have gone into administration and been relegated and very much struggled to go back up.

Although the popular narrative was that under Cotterill we barely spent anything, the reality was that just the wages were higher than the whole of the club's turnover. We'd already sold off the Turf and Gawthorpe to some company in a tax haven at that point. The directors didn't have the deep pockets to fund those losses indefinitely and, in addition to that, Flood made the loans via his companies rather than personally. When Modus went into administration that loan was called in and would probably have put us in administration too.

Without that Coyle promotion there is no chance we'd have had the success of the past fifteen years.

[Goliath]

Probably the best case would have been we'd have continued to bob round the lower revs of the championship.

More realistically though we'd have gone into administration and been relegated and very much struggled to go back up.

Although the popular narrative was that under Cotterill we barely spent anything, the reality was that just the wages were higher than the whole of the club's turnover. We'd already sold off the Turf and Gawthorpe to some company in a tax haven at that point. The directors didn't have the deep pockets to fund those losses indefinitely and, in addition to that, Flood made the loans via his companies rather than personally. When Modus went into administration that loan was called in and would probably have put us in administration too.

Without that Coyle promotion there is no chance we'd have had the success of the past fifteen years.

It was a bit of a myth that even Cotterill himself liked to trot out quite regularly that he didnt have anything to spend. He might not have soent huge amounts on transfer fees but the likes of Mcgreal, Sinclair, Hyde, Akinbiyi, Oster, Caldwell, Carlisle, Gray, Blake etc had all been high end Championship players and wont have been on pennies

[Westleigh]

The Coyle season was absolutely superb to watch! Lifted the town.

George Heys the butcher was producing sausages such as the Coyle Springer and various other Clarets based bangers,we finishing hating Coyle but what a good time we had.

[Kilson810]

The Coyle season was absolutely superb to watch! Lifted the town.

Yeah an amazing season. It really is such a shame how the following one ended.

[Nori1958]

I always wondered what would have happened if we'd have got to Wembley in the League Cup.

Would we have maintained our play-off push, or would getting to the final been too much of a distraction?

Basically, do we have to thank Roman Pavlyuchenko for now being a regular (sort of) in the Premier League?

It would have been a distraction....best thing that happened was spurs winning, but that cup run gave the belief we could win the big games, as reading and sheff utd found to their cost

[Fretters]

I think Goliath is over egging it. Yes it did bring great joy but the only Burnley game I've ever left at half time was in that season under Coyle.

We did play with an exciting freedom and the Wembley trip was just brilliant. Once the momentum was there you felt that there was no stopping us.

But we scraped into the play offs and if it wasn't for the very many 'wonder' goals we'd have not made it.

It was exciting and in the end kept us afloat for a bit. But 2014 is the one season that beats most and is more of a reason for where we are now.

Which game did you leave at half time? Surely it can't have been worse than the various City games we've had before and since.

[aggi]

It was a bit of a myth that even Cotterill himself liked to trot out quite regularly that he didnt have anything to spend. He might not have soent huge amounts on transfer fees but the likes of Mcgreal, Sinclair, Hyde, Akinbiyi, Oster, Caldwell, Carlisle, Gray, Blake etc had all been high end Championship players and wont have been on pennies

Yes, I think it was Wayne Thomas who was very much in demand on a free and we signed him above a number of high end championship clubs.

[AlargeClaret]

This is up there with “ what if Hitler had won the war” or “ what if Adam hadn’t rogered Eve” All hypothetical