Truly shows how far we as a club have come from when I was a youngster.

Was discussing over a pint with a mate last night how much things have changed and eapecially on the players side of things.

I never dreamed of us building a squad like we currently are or that we'd be selling players for 30 million because we wanted to not because we HAD to.

Then we began to discuss our potential midfield next season ......
- Brady
-Hendrick
-Marney
-Arfield
-O'neill
-Walters
-Cork
-Westwood
-JBG

*and the window is still wide open*

We could potentially have a starting 11 of midfielders come the start of he season ..... A far cry from us having Mark Yates as a sub/physio to make up numbers not ling ago.

Mark Bloomin Rasmussen was pne of our "next big things" and managed a whole 2 games before Stan sent him on his way..... We now have internatonals all over the pitch and even in our youth ranks, no debt, a dry powder store that Escobar would be proud of - and we're one of the only clubs doing everything the right way to grow - maybe even "the Burnley way" as we've never followed the trend or always seemed a step behind everybody else. Maybe staying that step behind everyone else even helped us see the problems ahead that others now have.

Long may it continue - Long Live The Venkys - Dyche Out (this last one is a dig I constantly have with a mate who wanted the ginger one gone and nearly refused to attend another game after that Hull loss).

Mark Yates was half decent. Scored in the 4-1 away win at Donny - knew we had a chance of going up then

Garnerssoap wrote:Mark Yates was half decent. Scored in the 4-1 away win at Donny - knew we had a chance of going up then

Is that a joke?

He was crap.

is he still manager of Cheltenham?

Yates was on the bench in 2004/05 when he came in as first team coach and we hadn't enough players. Other than in a friendly, he wasn't called upon to play.

He lost his job at Crawley a year ago when new owners moved in. I'm sure he's working as a coach in the Football League but for the life of me I can't remember where.

As a player, he was very much lower league level.

seem to remember his nickname in the stands was powder puff

Yates was one of Casper's signings wasn't he off the top of my head? seem to remember he did a lot of "pointing and talking"...but that was about it.

fidelcastro wrote:Is that a joke?

He was crap.

Disagree he was crap, a little lightweight for the league we were in but not crap. As alluded to in a previous post part of his job was organising the midfield around him. He had a decent touch and the eye and ability for a cutting pass at times. Had we been in the Championship I think we'd have a different opinion on Yates the player; in a similar way going back further Rocket Ron Futcher at times looked awful - mainly because he had too much of a football brain for those workmen around him at the time.

bfccrazy wrote:Then we began to discuss our potential midfield next season ......
- Brady
-Hendrick
-Marney
-Arfield
-O'neill
-Walters
-Cork
-Westwood
-JBG

Ahem, you've missed out probably the biggest marker of 'How far we have come':

Steven Defour.

I honestly think people have no idea how highly regarded Defour was before he signed for the Clarets.

Burnley signing Defour was monumental in the scheme of things.

Yates was Cotterill's skipper here at Chelt in the early 00's, a good player at L2 but was released after our relegation back to L2 and followed Steve as a coach...not sure he was a marquee signing!