Three ex-Clarets in the news
Three former Burnley players, all of whom have won a promotion with the Clarets, were in the news yesterday and all three for very different reasons.
Danny Ings came first yesterday morning with the shocking news that he’s suffered yet another knee injury, a fourth in not much over five years. The first two of those were at Burnley, one suffered in his first training session with the club and the second in a pre-season friendly at Rochdale almost a year later.
The first of them kept him four well over four months. He finally made a Burnley debut in a reserve team game at Preston before making his first team debut as a substitute in February against Barnsley.
When he suffered the injury at Rochdale, he was back by October, returning as a substitute in the 4-3 win at Bristol City when Terry Pashley was in charge.
For the next two and a half years he was only twice really out of the side. He missed five games having suffered an injury at Birmingham in the 2013/14 season before missing some early Premier League games in the following season with a hamstring injury.
But that’s nothing compared to his time at Liverpool. Having broken into the team last season, and scored goals in three 1-1 draws, including the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, he suffered a cruciate ligament injury in October, returning for their last Premier League game of the season as a substitute. He’s only played in the League Cup this season and he suffered another injury in his latest appearance last week and that will now keep him out for between seven and nine months.
It’s going to be another long hard slog for Danny but hopefully, once fit again, he’ll have a long period when he’s fully fit and able to force his way back into the side at Anfield.
It’s not so good for Joey Barton either. When Rangers announced yesterday that he was free to return to training after the disciplinary procedure had come to an end I thought he might be back in the team soon.
That’s definitely not the case. He is being told to report to train with the academy, presumably the development squad, but he will not be considered for selection for the first team.
When he did turn up for training this morning he wasn’t even granted permission to park in the first team car park and once parked up he was escorted from his car to the changing rooms by stewards.
It seems that Rangers have looked for but have been unable to find a suitable reason to terminate his contract and maybe they intend keeping him with the dev squad for the remainder of his contract or until they are able to move him on.
Ings won his promotion with Burnley in 2014 and Barton two years later; Warren Joyce was a promotion winner at Wembley in 1994 when we beat Stockport 2-1 having eased all our late nerves at Plymouth in the play-off semi when he scored the third goal against his former club.
Joyce, son of former Claret Walter, left Burnley soon after Adrian Heath became manager and signed for Hull, initially on loan. He went on to manage them for a season and a half when things weren’t too good there but he helped turn things round.
He’s since coached at Tranmere before moving to Manchester United, with an initial spell as manager of Royal Antwerp, and has been managing their reserve team for the last eight years.
That was until yesterday evening when he accepted the job as manager of Wigan Athletic on a three and a half year contract.
He’s been linked with a number of clubs, over recent years. He was linked with a return to Hull when Nigel Pearson moved back to Leicester and was believed to be on the radar at Burnley just over four years ago when we were looking for a replacement for Eddie Howe.
He’s now one of seven ex-Clarets managing in the top four leagues. Micky Phelan is in the Premier League with Hull, Graham Alexander is on the other side of the Humber in League One at his first club Scunthorpe while in League Two we can boast four with John McGreal (Colchester), Steve Davis (Crewe), Derek Adams (Plymouth) and Paul Cook (Portsmouth).
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