According to twitter..


A hint for Sean Dyche. Steven Defour on crutches in @hlnsport: “Signing a new deal with Burnley? We could talk about it. If they make me a contract offer that suits me, why wouldn’t I? I’m perfectly happy at Burnley.”

Coming from Kristof Terreur who broke the news that we were after him initially. Seems to have links with several of the belgian players in the UK so hopefully truth in this. Come on SD and Garlick get Defour signed up. 4 MORE YEARS for the best player I have seen in a claret and blue shirt

I'd be more than okay with that! He's been brilliant this season. I don't think many (myself included) thought he'd be with us beyond last summer.

Yeah, got to get this done this summer, out of contract summer 2019 I think.

I notice it says 'If they offer me a contract I like then why wouldn't I?'

Probably goes for any player, just depends how much money he wants in that contract?

Let's get him fit first and see how he is after his op.

No. Get him signed up NOW before his agent starts touting his name around.

If his injury was significant or career threatening, we’d know by now.

Blackrod wrote:Let's get him fit first and see how he is after his op.

This isn't a debilitating injury, merely a cartilage scrape. when you play sport your knee cartilages change from being smooth to being ridged like a crikle cut crisp. He has had those ridges shaved off. I was told 30 years ago by my GP that my cartilages were like that and they would continue to be like it for the rest of my life.

Quickenthetempo wrote:I notice it says 'If they offer me a contract I like then why wouldn't I?'

Probably goes for any player, just depends how much money he wants in that contract?

Pay him and others their worth.

Get him signed up ASAP and whilst we're at it, let's look at bringing in some more talent from the Belgian market.

jdrobbo wrote:Get him signed up ASAP and whilst we're at it, let's look at bringing in some more talent from the Belgian market.

Player power seems to mean a lot these days. If he's truly happy it could work wonders!

I just wonder if we could find any more of these Belgians/Dutch who do tend to fit well into our game.

bfcmik wrote:This isn't a debilitating injury, merely a cartilage scrape. when you play sport your knee cartilages change from being smooth to being ridged like a crikle cut crisp. He has had those ridges shaved off. I was told 30 years ago by my GP that my cartilages were like that and they would continue to be like it for the rest of my life.

Had the same myself but an older age through football and squash. The cartilage had broken and bits came off it. It was cleaned up and by and large it's been ok. Hope Steven is ok he's a terrific footballer and we could do with another couple of his ilk.

Stayingup wrote:Had the same myself but an older age through football and squash. The cartilage had broken and bits came off it. It was cleaned up and by and large it's been ok. Hope Steven is ok he's a terrific footballer and we could do with another couple of his ilk.

It's quite a common thing for athletes to have cartilage removed isn't it?

how long before Everton, West Brom and West Ham come sniffing, i wonder? they're like bloomin sharks.

Defour: "Fit in June The doctors do not rule it out"

"Come to the old Conrad hotel", he sighed. A bleak wind chases along the Avenue Louise. Also the face of Steven Defour (29) does not look happy. An operation on the knee made a cross about the season and, almost certainly, about his World Championship. Defour is 'picking up the pieces' - 'Miserie'.

How are you?

Steven Defour: (faint smile) "Ça va. I've already felt better ... It took a while before I could put things in place."

Tell me.
(deep sigh) "About three months ago I felt" stabbing "in my left knee for the first time - sometimes during a warm-up, sometimes on training, sometimes in a race ... It came on, and passed, I did an ultrasound and it showed that there was fluid in the fat pad of the knee, they pulled out the fluid and I could continue.On the home match against Manchester United on January 20 ... A quarter of an hour before time I blocked a shot of Martial and directly I felt a great pain, I still played the match, but the next day: a knee like that, then an MRI scan was made at the hospital, and the doctor said, "I'm afraid it's worse than I thought." A piece of cartilage was floating in the knee. "You have two options," said the doctor, "You stay on the side for six weeks and we strengthen the muscles around the knee, but I can not guarantee that the knee will heal completely. That will be the case if we operate, and then your season is over"

There's more, but you have to register with the site.

This thread says Defour wants a new deal, but he doesn't actually say he wants a new deal, it says if they offer he may take a new deal.

I think he's been absolutely key for our great start this season and I'd probably rate him as our most important player.

He's basically a top quality international centre midfielder so its a no brainer to get him on a new contract.

Get it offered and get it signed.

To develop as a club we need players like him and having him here helps to attract better players.

Let's stay up first!

Hipper wrote:Let's stay up first!

You'd think we were in danger of going down the way some are panicking!

Anyone found anything that says he WANTS a new deal yet? Or is this click bait?

Hipper wrote:Let's stay up first!

Hi Hipper, I think Steven Defour will be important to Burnley staying up at the end of the 2018/19 season - but I think we will want him to sign a new contract before then.

PS: I guess you know that we are staying up at the end of this season?

UTC

If he wants a new deal he should get a new deal. On crutches he would offer more than Hendrick!

cricketfieldclarets wrote:If he wants a new deal he should get a new deal. On crutches he would offer more than Hendrick!

Will a thread ever go by without a bit of Hendrick bashing?

Class act and real quality hope we get him signed up with a new deal

What i have noticed about him now, he seems to be part of the Burnley family, seems to be enjoying his football the enviroment, and a smile on his face says he is one of us

If he’s happy at Burnley and an extra 10k a week would seal the deal, I’d be writing up tha contract now. It’d cost way more to get someone of that quality in.

He’s my new Robbie Blake and that’s saying something!!

Do we not have an option beyond 2019 so that he could be with us until end of 2019- 2020 season?

oops. Thanks wilks

mdd2 wrote:Do we not have an option beyond 2019 so that he could be with us until end of 1919- 2020 season?

Bloody hell. I’m not sure his knees will holdout that long

Anyone point to the quote that says he WANTS a new deal yet?

ClaretAndJew wrote:Anyone point to the quote that says he WANTS a new deal yet?

Are you alright C&J? It's like your panicking because his contract demands and date of signing new deal aren't on here. It sounds positive.

No not panicking, just reading something different than what the post title says.

You would imagine that talks about a new deal have already started and im sure the club would like to extend his deal. Id certainly be pleased if we did.

However, caution needed. Defour is 30 in April and will be 31 when his deal expires. Another year taking him to 32 makes perfect sense for Burnley, but I daresay Defour will want two more years and given his injury record that is probably less straightforward for Burnley, particularly if Defour wants an increase on his current salary or, for example, wants to remove the drop in his wages that will currently be written in if we get relegated.

It's great he's open to it, but its definitely not as straightforward as saying "get him signed" or "If it takes an extra 10k, do it".

Vital player for us. If we are to progress or even maintain our success of this season we need him and hopefully another one or two of his class.

To me,it doesn't matter (within reason) what his increased salary is, nor does it matter if we have to give a year longer than we would like. If we could have 2 more seasons of Steven Defour at his best it would worth it.

3putt wrote:Vital player for us. If we are to progress or even maintain our success of this season we need him and hopefully another one or two of his class.

To me,it doesn't matter (within reason) what his increased salary is, nor does it matter if we have to give a year longer than we would like. If we could have 2 more seasons of Steven Defour at his best it would worth it.

That won't be the way the club view it, and nor should it be. Apart from anything else its the precedent it sets for other players in the squad. The point at which the players you signed about the time of promotion negotiate contract renewals is a well known point at which clubs have got themselves into trouble before. We've got to learn those lessons, not ignore them.

You take an injury risk with all players though Spice.

An extra two years for a player who has proved how good he is at reading the game and shown himself capable of being Dyche fit isn't a massive gamble, especially as finding an equivalent player would be problematic and (likely) more expensive.

We are talking about the player who makes us tick here, and its vital that we keep him.

Lancasterclaret wrote:You take an injury risk with all players though Spice.

An extra two years for a player who has proved how good he is at reading the game and shown himself capable of being Dyche fit isn't a massive gamble, especially as finding an equivalent player would be problematic and (likely) more expensive.

We are talking about the player who makes us tick here, and its vital that we keep him.

I completely agree that we should be doing every we can to keep him. But my main point is that it's not as simple as just making him an offer he cant refuse and just because he says he wants to say, the devil is in the detail of that statement.

And good as he is and important as he undoubtedly is, lets not overstate this. To thrive at this level we are going to have to be capable of replacing all of our more gifted players from time to time (as we did last season with Keane). We are really talking about whether we might need to set an unwanted precedent to keep Defour for an extra 12 months.

We should definitely be pushing ourselves to make sure we keep Defour. But we shouldn't overextend ourselves or make exceptions to good policies that might set an unwanted precedent.

So does he want a deal or is it something he may think about if he's offered?

One of the tabloids running the story......

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... -contract/

claretspice wrote:That won't be the way the club view it, and nor should it be. Apart from anything else its the precedent it sets for other players in the squad. The point at which the players you signed about the time of promotion negotiate contract renewals is a well known point at which clubs have got themselves into trouble before. We've got to learn those lessons, not ignore them.

We are an extremely well run club so I hardly think we are likely to put ourselves at risk through some crazy deal. However, you can't treat any two players the same these days in terms of contracts and deals. We would be on a road to certain failure if we had a policy of every player being offered the same wages and length of contract.

Defour is an exceptional player for us and therefore we should push the boat out to keep him, even if that meant giving him a longer contract (only your assumption by the way).

You also cite Keane as an example below, but that is completely different in that he is much younger and able to attract a sizeable transfer value.

It would more than likely cost us a lot more to replace Defour with a player if the same ability than it would to keep him whatever deal we offer.

Not so sure we could meet his new demands, now he is a proven prem player.

claretspice wrote:I completely agree that we should be doing every we can to keep him. But my main point is that it's not as simple as just making him an offer he cant refuse and just because he says he wants to say, the devil is in the detail of that statement.

And good as he is and important as he undoubtedly is, lets not overstate this. To thrive at this level we are going to have to be capable of replacing all of our more gifted players from time to time (as we did last season with Keane). We are really talking about whether we might need to set an unwanted precedent to keep Defour for an extra 12 months.

We should definitely be pushing ourselves to make sure we keep Defour. But we shouldn't overextend ourselves or make exceptions to good policies that might set an unwanted precedent.

Even if his levels drop slightly in a season or so he would surely still be better than many midfielders at this level.

It's interesting this has been picked up when all he's said was if we offered him a contract he'd look at it.

I think this just proves how good an omelette Mrs Dyche cooks. I hope this has proved the doubters wrong. He wasn't offered one when he signed for us, but was delivered one in his hospital bed after surgery.

i asked him and he said he wants one.

quoonbeatz wrote:i asked him and he said he wants one.

What, another omelette?

yes, with a contract in the middle.

Hipper wrote:Let's stay up first!

What?????????

claretspice wrote:That won't be the way the club view it, and nor should it be. Apart from anything else its the precedent it sets for other players in the squad. The point at which the players you signed about the time of promotion negotiate contract renewals is a well known point at which clubs have got themselves into trouble before. We've got to learn those lessons, not ignore them.

I've heard this argument many times, about other players getting in some way jealous if a player earns a lot more money, and it does makes sense on the face of it. However I work and have done for many years in an environment where people earn different levels of pay for doing what amounts to the same job. The fact is a company (and Burnley FC is a company) pays an individual what they believe he/she is worth and what that individual or their representative negotiates at the interview. If, as an example, Westwood found out that Defour was earning 20k per week more than him he might ask the question 'why'? To which the answer would be, simply, 'you're not as good as he is, he is of proportionately more value to the club'. I have earned more than many of the people I have worked with over the years and I have earned considerably less than others, it has never made me jealous or made me feel undervalued. If the players have a correct sense of their worth then paying a world class player the going rate and paying them the going rate for an average PL level player should not be a problem to them. As an exaggerated example if we suddenly signed Messi and paid him 150k per week would they all have the audacity to say they are worth the same?