All the talk so far has been around Tarks leaving in the summer due to his contract being up 2022 but surely the bigger problem is Ben Mee's contract is also up in 2022. Do we expect him to sign a new deal? Is it a given?
Ben has never been blessed with pace his reading of the game and positioning is top notch, but he's also entering the twlight of his career, certainly worth another 3yr deal which would take him to 34/35.

How on earth do you replace Ben Mee? Can you replace Ben?

buzzclarets79 wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 9:35 am

All the talk so far has been around Tarks leaving in the summer due to his contract being up 2022 but surely the bigger problem is Ben Mee's contract is also up in 2022. Do we expect him to sign a new deal? Is it a given?
Ben has never been blessed with pace his reading of the game and positioning is top notch, but he's also entering the twlight of his career, certainly worth another 3yr deal which would take him to 34/35.

How on earth do you replace Ben Mee? Can you replace Ben?

I thought Ben Gibson was bought as a replacement, when Ben Mee was vacillating over a new cotract. He signed a new one and Gibson couldnt dislodge him or Tarkowski from the team. As we all know. Planning will surely be in place for replacing both our current centre halves and hopefully the right back - or will it?

Ben Mee won't get a better offer than the reported 55k a week he's on with us. Course he'll sign a new deal.

You'd hope the club have been planning this far ahead for his replacement.

When he retires I hope we offer him a "chief spokesperson for Burnley FC" job - nobody represents us better

Nah, he's lined up for defensive coach.

Lesson one, put your face in the way.

https://youtu.be/W3L84mbTAPg

I think he's struggled last few games with this more expansive way we have been playing.
Certainly exposed him at times.
Both him and talks have been great for us but I feel they are both made better players by the system we play/have played .

Ben Mee will retire at Burnley as captain

One of THE most influential players in my time supporting the Clarets.

Not always seen as a standout defender but his leadership and influence on the whole team is absolutely invaluable.

Tarks/Keane/Long/Pipe/Heaton et al are not the same players without Ben alongside.

I am dreading the day when he is no longer with us or available but whilst he is let’s enjoy him and use the time to plan transition properly.

I'll be amazed if Ben doesn't pen a new deal soon, he seems settled here, and let's be honest where else is he going to go, also he's still only 31 and as others have commented pace has never been a major asset in his game,, it's his tenacity and positional sense that often keep him out of trouble, and his leadership on and off the pitch has proved invaluable throughout his long Clarets tenure, he's the glue who holds our defence together, and it was ruthlessly shown how badly we missed him when he was out with injury.

Everything for me points to him staying with us. With any other PL club he may struggle through lack of pace, whereas SD will never drop him. THe PL and BFC have helped make Ben a recognised defender by fans throughout the UK.

Any of the newly promoted clubs would/should be interested in Ben

Add Palace, Southampton (if Bednarek goes) and Newcastle never have enough CB's

Hopefully the latest addition to his family would tempt he and his wife to stay in the North West and therefore with us

Finding one CB is going to be difficult and I would hate to see Long and Dunne starting a Prem game together again

buzzclarets79 wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 9:35 am

All the talk so far has been around Tarks leaving in the summer due to his contract being up 2022 but surely the bigger problem is Ben Mee's contract is also up in 2022. Do we expect him to sign a new deal? Is it a given?
Ben has never been blessed with pace his reading of the game and positioning is top notch, but he's also entering the twlight of his career, certainly worth another 3yr deal which would take him to 34/35.

How on earth do you replace Ben Mee? Can you replace Ben?

Yes, you can, but you have to wait for Ben to leave before you do....

Stayingup wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 2:51 pm

I thought Ben Gibson was bought as a replacement, when Ben Mee was vacillating over a new cotract. He signed a new one and Gibson couldnt dislodge him or Tarkowski from the team. As we all know. Planning will surely be in place for replacing both our current centre halves and hopefully the right back - or will it?

Spot on, I can’t think of any other 15mil substitute players sat on the bench.

Jakubclaret wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 6:02 pm

Spot on, I can’t think of any other 15mil substitute players sat on the bench.

Here, no, but its quite normal at other clubs.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 6:11 pm

Here, no, but its quite normal at other clubs.

I agree there’s no way on gods green earth a club like ours would spend 15mil to have a guy on the sidelines twiddling his thumbs, it was knee jerk panic buy driven by BMs indecision initial reluctance, what should have happened is the offer proposed should have had some of time allowance as a take it or leave it instead of just leaving something hanging in the air & not knowing for certain.

It took Sean Dyche a while to move him from left back ti the centre when many of us thought that mive should have come earlier. But of course Stephen Ward came and was suoerb for us at left back.

Jakubclaret wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 6:49 pm

I agree there’s no way on gods green earth a club like ours would spend 15mil to have a guy on the sidelines twiddling his thumbs, it was knee jerk panic buy driven by BMs indecision initial reluctance, what should have happened is the offer proposed should have had some of time allowance as a take it or leave it instead of just leaving something hanging in the air & not knowing for certain.

Rock and a hard place by the club.

We needed another left sided CB lets be honest and Gibson was a good defender with PL experience af a good age, available at a decent price.

If we hadn't signed one it's sods law Mee would've left or been injured for a long period, same when we ended up with just David Jones in midfield after Marney suffered his knee injury not long after the transfer window shut.

It didn't work out, but I wouldn't say it was a panic buy.
Plus we will hopefully recoup most of our outlay if his move to Norwich goes ahead, which it should.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 7:51 pm

Rock and a hard place by the club.

We needed another left sided CB lets be honest and Gibson was a good defender with PL experience af a good age, available at a decent price.

If we hadn't signed one it's sods law Mee would've left or been injured for a long period, same when we ended up with just David Jones in midfield after Marney suffered his knee injury not long after the transfer window shut.

It didn't work out, but I wouldn't say it was a panic buy.
Plus we will hopefully recoup most of our outlay if his move to Norwich goes ahead, which it should.

Gibson deal should go through on 1st July https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57008750 which will get some big wages off the books, as well as recouping some of our outlay.

Stayingup wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 6:50 pm

It took Sean Dyche a while to move him from left back ti the centre when many of us thought that mive should have come earlier. But of course Stephen Ward came and was suoerb for us at left back.

A lot of players learn the trade at full-back before being brought into the centre. We did the same with Duff, though I understand you are saying that the move to the centre should've been sooner.

Didn't we also have the problem that Easton was our "number 1" left-back and a liability so we had to play Mee there or is my memory failing me?

We had Ward for 16 months before he managed to replace Mee at left back

Devils_Advocate wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 8:19 pm

We had Ward for 16 months before he managed to replace Mee at left back

Yep, think Ward barely played for the first season and a half he was here.

We finally changed it after the Boxing Day hammering at Hull. Brought Ward in at left back and moved Mee to partner Keane. Seem to remember we only brought Lowton in to the side ahead of Darikwa at a similar stage of the season.

We'd probably have won the league by miles if we had played that defence all season.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote: ↑

Thu May 06, 2021 7:51 pm

Rock and a hard place by the club.

We needed another left sided CB lets be honest and Gibson was a good defender with PL experience af a good age, available at a decent price.

If we hadn't signed one it's sods law Mee would've left or been injured for a long period, same when we ended up with just David Jones in midfield after Marney suffered his knee injury not long after the transfer window shut.

It didn't work out, but I wouldn't say it was a panic buy.
Plus we will hopefully recoup most of our outlay if his move to Norwich goes ahead, which it should.

True it could have turned out hell of a lot worse than it did, we bought somebody with some calibre (resale value) which was our saving grace & stopped the debacle becoming a complete & utter disaster, in a way I wish BG well in the circumstances he actually did us a favour leaving for rockliffe he could have stayed put rotting the place out, if you don’t want to be somewhere it’s in everybody’s best interests to just leave. You just hope lessons have been learnt going into the future.