Starting Lineup

[Leisure]

Then why is the manager whining

He's not. He would just like any opportunity to strenthen the team

[Gordaleman]

The point is we’ve lost three outfield players and signed one. They were all part of the first team set-up and strength of the squad. Our squad is undoubtedly weaker now and we’ve done very little to strengthen it, hence being in a situation where our CB pairing has 30 or so PL games between them.

If you don’t think that is poor management, fair enough, but I do.

Gibson, Hart, Lennon and Hendrick all left at the end of the season. We couldn't replace them until the transfer window opened. It's STILL open, or hadn't you noticed? Give the board a chance for pity's sake.

[FCBurnley]

Dunne is the replacement or Long is the replacement and Dunne is Longs replacement. See we have loads of choices

[FactualFrank]

I agree if he wants to go then let him go, of course he could be genuinely injured, but it's peculiar this 'injury' only reared it's head when the interest from Leicester and West Ham increased.

The nightmare scenario for us, is he goes at the 11th hour, and we don't have time to get a replacement through the door, so if he's heading for pastures new, then let's get it sorted and start getting 2-3 bodies through the door. we don't need a huge influx, just a CB, RB, RW, if we can get competition in those positions we'll be well placed to have another decent season, Tarks or no Tarks.

Agree with most of that, but with Lowton and Bards, I think we can forget about a new RB coming in.

RW and CB will do.

[Boss Hogg]

Dreadful bench for the Premier League.
Southampton strikers will be licking their lips at our defensive line up. Poor from Garlick.

[matttheclaret]

Nick Pope hurt in the warm up. Not sure if he's playing or not

[Quickenthetempo]

Embarrassing bench.

We've all known for 12-18 months that a couple of injuries and we would be scraping the barrel. Nothing has been done to try and rectify this, now we're paying the price. As for the CB fiasco, how long have we known that we wouldn't be seeing Gibson in a Burnley shirt again? A respectable club would've seen another CB brought back in months since.

Young lads that have come through our youth ranks on the bench is far from embarrassing.

[daveisaclaret]

Even if it doesn't, Lennon, Gibson and Hart played less than 500 minutes between them last season, so not first team players by any stretch of the imagination.

This is a very odd way of writing "Aaron Lennon played 485 minutes last season" isn't it?

He started 4 games and came on in 12 - played in more Premier League games than not before he left.

[ksrclaret]

It does when SD is manager.

Even if it doesn't, Lennon, Gibson and Hart played less than 500 minutes between them last season, so not first team players by any stretch of the imagination.

Give over. They were first team players. Do you think they entered the training ground under the ‘FIRST TEAM’ door? I’m willing to bet they did.

[TVC15]

The point is we’ve lost three outfield players and signed one. They were all part of the first team set-up and strength of the squad. Our squad is undoubtedly weaker now and we’ve done very little to strengthen it, hence being in a situation where our CB pairing has 30 or so PL games between them.

If you don’t think that is poor management, fair enough, but I do.

Yep we get that we need to replace them but you cannot deny we have been really unlucky with injuries.
Even when we had more money to play with than we seem to have now for the majority of transfer windows we leave it late to bring in players.

Difference this year is we have been hit by injuries.

You can say it’s poor management but it’s not that different to the way we have successfully operated for 8 years....and there is clearly a reason why we do it this way which relates to our financial position.

[Wokingclaret]

He's not. He would just like any opportunity to strenthen the team

Where have you been

[Tall Paul]

Nick Pope hurt in the warm up. Not sure if he's playing or not

Oh no, does this mean he's leaving too?

[NewClaret]

Gibson, Hart, Lennon and Hendrick all left at the end of the season. We couldn't replace them until the transfer window opened. It's STILL open, or hadn't you noticed? Give the board a chance for pity's sake.

Mate, it’s been open 8 weeks or something. We have one week left. They’ve had plenty of chance.

My whole point they’ve had long enough and they should’ve got it done sooner, particularly in central defence where we’ve known for 9 months we would be losing a player. We’ve had plenty of time to arrange Gibson’s sale but not sign a replacement?

Assuming Tarks’ injury is genuine, as CT says it is (I’m somewhat sceptical but want to believe him/it is), they’ve still had a couple of weeks to accelerate a signing.

[boatshed bill]

We had a shockingly expensive bench last season.
Hart and Gibson two of the most expensive subs for the season,
And people wonder why there's little money!

[summitclaret]

Embarrassing bench?
3 of them young lads deserve to be there after their displays against Millwall with one of them even pushing to start ahead of Kevin Long!
All enhances our growing reputation for developing young,talented players. UTC

Absolute garbage

[Wokingclaret]

hes playing

[Burnley Ace]

Nick Pope hurt in the warm up. Not sure if he's playing or not

Well he’s stood in the tunnel, sorry

[Gordaleman]

Mate, it’s been open 8 weeks or something. We have one week left. They’ve had plenty of chance.

My whole point they’ve had long enough and they should’ve got it done sooner, particularly in central defence where we’ve known for 9 months we would be losing a player. We’ve had plenty of time to arrange Gibson’s sale but not sign a replacement?

Assuming Tarks’ injury is genuine, as CT says it is (I’m somewhat sceptical but want to believe him/it is), they’ve still had a couple of weeks to accelerate a signing.

Just how long have you been watching football? If it's more than five years then you should know that the vast majority of deals are done in the last two or three days. Why should it be different this time, just because you are impatient?

[matttheclaret]

Well he’s stood in the tunnel, sorry

Never said he wasn't. Just said he was having treatment on his thumb which he hurt in the warm up. Which he did. Thankfully he's playing

[NewClaret]

Yep we get that we need to replace them but you cannot deny we have been really unlucky with injuries.
Even when we had more money to play with than we seem to have now for the majority of transfer windows we leave it late to bring in players.

Difference this year is we have been hit by injuries.

You can say it’s poor management but it’s not that different to the way we have successfully operated for 8 years....and there is clearly a reason why we do it this way which relates to our financial position.

Do agree we have been very unlucky with injuries, just that we should have cover in all positions as we have up front where we are coping okay. If we had 4 experienced CB’s as we have strikers, we’d be fine.

Don’t moan about our strategy in the market generally, just that our CB situation hasn’t been treated with more priority.

Anyway I’m going to stop moaning now & watch the game. Hopefully Dunne & Long prove why we haven’t needed to strengthen.

[tiger76]

Agree with most of that, but with Lowton and Bards, I think we can forget about a new RB coming in.

RW and CB will do.

Yep that's probably fair, I don't see RB as a priority area in the grand scheme of things, but we need a replacement for Lennon, and Gibson/Tarks.

[Socrates]

We are way, way, way off.

Barnes has been out all year, we knew Gibson was off in January, Mee has been out ages, we knew Cork was long term and JBG and Brady have a long history of being made of cornflakes.

None of this was a surprise. None of this is me using hindsight.

There has been a sizeable failure to get enough footballers into an organisation primarily in the business of football. It’s not good enough and whoever is involved, whoever is in responsible needs to give their head a wobble and sort this out. Because right now this is nowhere near good enough.

We need 4 or 5. A couple won’t do.

[summitclaret]

We are way, way, way off.

Barnes has been out all year, we knew Gibson was off in January, Mee has been out ages, we knew Cork was long term and JBG and Brady have a long history of being made of cornflakes.

None of this was a surprise. None of this is me using hindsight.

There has been a sizeable failure to get enough footballers into an organisation primarily in the business of football. It’s not good enough and whoever is involved, whoever is in responsible needs to give their head a wobble and sort this out. Because right now this is nowhere near good enough.

We need 4 or 5. A couple won’t do.

Spot on.