ARTICLE:Egan-Riley leaves Burnley

[JimmyRobbo]

Disappointing but easily replaceable. The main thing we will miss is his distribution. Defensively he wasn’t strong enough to play Premier League football. We move on…..

Didn't want him to leave. Wanted to see if he could cope with the Prem but I always saw it the same way as you.

[NL Claret]

Matt Williams definitely said that.

Whether he was embellishing the truth a bit for a good story, who knows but as someone else has said, listen to Parker’s press conference when he left. Says it all. He isn’t coming back.

Link to the press conference? My searches have come up with a 15 second clip of a manager who looked despondent about the situation at the club at the time , as were most UTC posters, I’m struggling to make any connection with the alleged Williams comment and Parker’s press conference

[RalphCoatesComb]

Agents... the scourge of the modern game !

[boatshed bill]

I suspect he might. He’s developing, and developed with us. From a centre half who looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights when he broke into the side, to one of the first names on the team sheet when the season ended, he improved massively. Will he continue to improve enough to end up at Chelsea (which will be the main reason he’s gone to Strasbourg), no.

Apart from he's signed for Marseille

[Holtyclaret]

Mason Greenwood at Marseille on €105k per week. I’m guessing they know each other quite well. Pay decent wages too.

[CrosspoolClarets]

Disappointed as I would like to have kept the defence together.

However, now he has gone, I feel free to venture an opinion that we can do far better (though at a cost versus a free).

Towards the end of the season there were several games where panic set in and a teammate had to bale him out. The mental edge is the hardest thing to predict in a teenager. Now he is early 20s I suspect he will be a classy player but without the mental edge, physicality, height or raw speed to be a truly top rate Premier League player.

I wish CJ well, he owes us nothing, especially how he was treated 2 years ago, but, to be frank, he isn’t Esteve.

[Stayingup]

I just hope he gets in touch with Joey for some lessons in how to speak French!!! Au revior et bon chance!!!

[Stayingup]

I just hope he gets in touch with Joey for some lessons in how to speak French!!! Au revior et bon chance!!!

Oops sorry Joey Bonne chance

[Colburn_Claret]

Gutted
Not unexpected

Wish him all the best, I hope he makes it to the very top. Just with anybody but Chelsea.

[louieollie]

Wishing CJ nothing but the best, had a fantastic season after being considered surplus to the bigger picture. He owes us absolutely nothing and performed consistantly in a record breaking defensive structure.........I cant blame him for one second.

[dvalley69]

If it is Marseille then it's a big step up and if he can prove himself there then it'll stand him in good stead for a potential Prem return. Playing for a MASSIVE French club, in the CL, under De Zerbi, in a raucous stadium, and paid well, will give him a real footballing experience. Can't really blame him if it comes off. I wonder if he spoke to Esteve about living/playing footy in the south of France? Thanks for the memories CJ.

[xxmunkyennuixx]

He was excellent last season and a major part of the promotion so I hope it goes well for him. Parker created a unit and it as much about tactics and structure as individual talent. Some of the names we are being linked with look a good fit. I would also love Beyer to come back and show what he can do in a more pragmatic side.

[Damo]

Did well in the championship for us.
Earned a shed load of money and looks set to earn a shed load more in france.
I wish him no good fortune or no ill.

[Lew200100]

Last 2 or 3 games of the season Steve made him look better than he was. He is probably the best passer of a ball I’ve seen as a centre back and better than any of our current midfielders but and a big but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have enjoyed the premier league. He got bullied off Sheffield, Norwich towards the end of the season and most teams worked out block the ball to Egan Riley and let Steve have it. This stopped his best asset and premiership striker’s are a notch up from this so better with a talker, faster and more aggressive defender in my opinion.

[Vino blanco]

He had a very good season for in the Championship, playing alongside an absolutely outstanding centre back in Esteve. I’m sorry that we are losing him for little or no money but as others have pointed out I have always been concerned about his lack of height to meet the challenges of the PL. Good luck to the lad though, he gave is all for us.

[jojomk1]

I hope I was right In thinking he was vastly overrated. Time will tell.
I presume this will only make Trafford want to get out of the club even quicker however so It can't be good for the dressing room.

Get Michael Keane in asap

Michael Keane ???

[Mattster]

Big, big loss and very hard to replace. Strongly disagree with people saying he wasn't a strong or good enough defender to play in the PL. The stats show he us a much more active defender than Esteve and also significantly stronger in ground duels. Aerial ability could be the only doubt but he isn't exactly weak at them. Finding a defender who can offer the same on the ball and defensively will be very difficult.

[PWBFC]

Wish him the best of luck. Doesn't owe us anything after an excellent and unexpected season.

[Clive 1960]

Only time will tell if he made the right decision, but the best of luck to the lad ..

[Conroysleftfoot]

Big, big loss and very hard to replace. Strongly disagree with people saying he wasn't a strong or good enough defender to play in the PL. The stats show he us a much more active defender than Esteve and also significantly stronger in ground duels. Aerial ability could be the only doubt but he isn't exactly weak at them. Finding a defender who can offer the same on the ball and defensively will be very difficult.

..and expensive

[claretonthecoast1882]

You don’t think we offered him the most we could/think he’s worth?

Can’t do much more than that. No massive loss, it’s his choice.

Do you think Williams is involved in membership schemes (that quite a few fans got real benefit from).

Save your energy with spike, he is one of the leaders of the Royston Vasey leadership and can't go a day without having a dig at the owners.

He misses his local club for local people era. I would go as far as he would blame Pace if he burnt his toast this morning.

[Goody1975]

I wanted him to stay, for continuity as much as anything. We can replace him, but there are no guarantees that the replacement will be a success.

No ill feelings from me, nobody would have given him a second thought if he was being released, rather than deciding to move elsewhere.

[boatshed bill]

Did well in the championship for us.
Earned a shed load of money and looks set to earn a shed load more in france.
I wish him no good fortune or no ill.

According to any info I've found he was the 4th lowest earner in our entire squad. I'm surprised we didn't give him a pay rise once he had become an established 1st teamer.

[Goliath]

Michael Keane ???

Out of contract and seems like an absolute perfect fit to me

[Goliath]

According to any info I've found he was the 4th lowest earner in our entire squad. I'm surprised we didn't give him a pay rise once he had become an established 1st teamer.

Isn't that the whole point? We've been trying to but he decided to run his contract down instead. We can't give him a payrise if he doesn't agree to it.

[Damo]

According to any info I've found he was the 4th lowest earner in our entire squad. I'm surprised we didn't give him a pay rise once he had become an established 1st teamer.

Sounds to me like we offered him one?

[bumba]

According to any info I've found he was the 4th lowest earner in our entire squad. I'm surprised we didn't give him a pay rise once he had become an established 1st teamer.

We'd offered him a significant pay rise with an extended contract which he has refused. If he was refusing to extend the length of his contract why would we pay him more money in the final year?

[The Shire Claret]

All the best CJ - What a player

[ChorltonCharlie]

According to any info I've found he was the 4th lowest earner in our entire squad. I'm surprised we didn't give him a pay rise once he had become an established 1st teamer.

Its a difficult balancing act. We already have a bloated squad which brings issues with things like PSR. He's a player that was out of favour for a couple of years of his three year contract. It was in the clubs favour that his contract was running down. He then gets a break and does well, but how long into that period do we offer a new contract? There's no guarantee he'll sustain the form. The form continues, as it did, then other clubs start being interested. The club are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

[NewClaret]

Link to the press conference? My searches have come up with a 15 second clip of a manager who looked despondent about the situation at the club at the time , as were most UTC posters, I’m struggling to make any connection with the alleged Williams comment and Parker’s press conference

It’ll be there somewhere. He obviously didn’t confirm Matt Williams’ comments about the specific altercation, he talked in general terms about the situation.

It’s fine for people to believe what they like and I’d imagine the only people who know for certain what happened will be the people concerned or those who witnessed it, but he’s no longer our player and I don’t see a scenario where he will be again after how Matt described the altercation, so a bit of a pointless discussion really.

[CrosspoolClarets]

The other thing about this move is that CJ has more than paid back his transfer fee. When Worrall was badly injured just after the window shut we were up the creek. We had Egan whose long term fitness wasn’t proven, and we had Humphries who was needed at LB while Pires grew into the league. If CJ hadn’t been available the whole season would have been different.

So we can simply thank him, wish him all the best, and move on.

[AlargeClaret]

No suprise , and we didn’t even know he’d step up to Prem level , though still a big loss and presumably no cash ? Hopefully Beyer will return and Worrall gets a run and we’ll need a top replacement for Steve too . Though the money for Traff/Steve/ etc should be decent

[claretspice]

This is disappointing news, and there are most certainly lessons to be learnt from this. If we're a club that has a model bringing in young talent, developing it and selling it on, you can't allow a player of that ilk to leave on a free at the end of a 3 year deal. Either his potential was not fully believed in last season (in which case there are lessons on the football side), or it was and either he wasn't looked after and so wasn't interested in extending his deal last season (in which case the lessons are pastoral) or an offer wasn't made at all last season (in which case the lessons are commercial).

We will miss his range of passing from deep next season, but this may in some respects simplify our equation next season. Egan Riley always felt like a player well suited to a back 3 in the Premier League because there were legitimate questions about whether he (particularly in combination with Esteve) had the brute power that the Premier League demands - at this stage in his career development. The silver lining of the cloud is that this gives us a chance to bring in a more powerful partner for Esteve without either changing formation, or disrupting the squad dynamics by marginalising a player in Egan Riley who appeared popular, and had only just established himself.

Good luck to him - Marseille is a good move for him in terms of a step up whilst staying in a slightly less physically demanding league, and I don't think we can begrudge him the move given how little faith we apparently showed in him before last season.

[quoonbeatz]

Disappointing news because keeping as much of the first team together as possible gives us the best base to try and stay up. He’s had a cracking season and should have an excellent career - he’s got everything you need as a centre half and only likely to improve. For his age he reads the game well, is decent positionally, fine in the air for his size strong in the challenge, brings the ball out very well and his passing (especially long range) is excellent.

Good move for him - Marseille are huge club and I’m sure he’ll do very well there. It’s a short career, you have to take these opportunities while you can.

[quoonbeatz]

It never ceases to amaze me the hearsay that becomes fact on here.

Always amusing. People who are generally quite sensible just go with it as well.

[martin_p]

Be interesting to see how his future pans out, I think it could go either way at the moment. He was obviously fantastic for us last season but he needs to follow that up with a good season next season which doesn’t always follow. I wish him well and hope his career does take off and we can look back and be proud of the part Burnley Football Club played in his development.

[fatboy47]

I think if Parker had been desperate to keep him he'd still be here. Not strong enough in the air for the Prem may well be Parker's view...thus not pushing the boat out to keep him.

Let's see how he gets on next season without Esteve wiping his backside.

[BigGaz]

I'm not sure what more we could have done tbh.

He was very young when we got him and that first season it's difficult to make an argument that we should've accommodated him given that we went on to be perhaps one of the greatest championship sides of all time, and the meanest defence in the league.

It would also be difficult to suggest that we could've accommodated him the season after. Partly due to the manager of course, but mostly none of them were good enough. Would he have been any better? Would it have been good for his development to be in a team getting thumped most weeks?

Perhaps there's a lesson in giving young talent longer contracts but that comes with it's own risks. If he didn't step up, like so many don't, you've got a young player thats costing you good money that is difficult to shift as with longer contracts come bigger wages.

Maybe easier to do if you're a Chelsea or City but we don't have the money to be committing to players that have 'maybe' circled next to their name.

[NL Claret]

It’ll be there somewhere. He obviously didn’t confirm Matt Williams’ comments about the specific altercation, he talked in general terms about the situation.

It’s fine for people to believe what they like and I’d imagine the only people who know for certain what happened will be the people concerned or those who witnessed it, but he’s no longer our player and I don’t see a scenario where he will be again after how Matt described the altercation, so a bit of a pointless discussion really.

It will be there somewhere although no one can find anything more than a disillusioned manager as his better players were getting sold and he had little time to replace them.

You are quite right with one point, it is a pointless discussion as there is no evidence to substantiate the rumour.

[CalamityClaret]

Absolutely gutted with this one. Really wanted to see how he'd cope in the PL along side Esteve. He didn't fancy it so that's up to him. As someone said above I wish him no good luck or ill will. Who cares how he does. That is football

[Goliath]

It will be there somewhere although no one can find anything more than a disillusioned manager as his better players were getting sold and he had little time to replace them.

You are quite right with one point, it is a pointless discussion as there is no evidence to substantiate the rumour.

Take what you want from it. But it was a very cold few words with not a single compliment or hint of well wishes. Read between the lines. Parker is a very good people person, I doubt you'll see him be that sharp very often even about a departing player.

Also, there's numerous people that have confirmed it came from Matt Williams. He is renowned for saying a bit too much which he admits himself so it seems quite likely. Also, nobody cares about Dara o'shea so it'd be a very odd thing to make up.

[blatherwickstattoos]

Champions league football or relegation battle.

Good luck to him

[claretspice]

I'm not sure what more we could have done tbh.

He was very young when we got him and that first season it's difficult to make an argument that we should've accommodated him given that we went on to be perhaps one of the greatest championship sides of all time, and the meanest defence in the league.

It would also be difficult to suggest that we could've accommodated him the season after. Partly due to the manager of course, but mostly none of them were good enough. Would he have been any better? Would it have been good for his development to be in a team getting thumped most weeks?

Perhaps there's a lesson in giving young talent longer contracts but that comes with it's own risks. If he didn't step up, like so many don't, you've got a young player thats costing you good money that is difficult to shift as with longer contracts come bigger wages.

Maybe easier to do if you're a Chelsea or City but we don't have the money to be committing to players that have 'maybe' circled next to their name.

I think the way in which his loans were handled two sesaons ago, and the way in which there was so much uncertainty within the club about his role last season (it is documented that ahead of the Sunderland game, he expected to be going out on loan - which on its own is odd given he had only 12 months on his contract) suggests there are lessons to be learned somewhere.

[BigGaz]

Sorry I'm not party to the loan situation two seasons ago, what happened there?

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Good luck to him

We got him for not a lot, his efforts this season have been instrumental in our clean sheets and promotion, meaning we've made millions

Excellent player this season, owes us nothing and gave us everything this season after spending a few years kicking his heels or being out on loan

[Claretfanatic1982]

Sorry I'm not party to the loan situation two seasons ago, what happened there?

He missed out on a loan move to the PSV reserves (would it have been beneficial, I don't know) due to the paperwork not being submitted in time I think.

[TsarBomba]

I think if Parker had been desperate to keep him he'd still be here. Not strong enough in the air for the Prem may well be Parker's view...thus not pushing the boat out to keep him.

Let's see how he gets on next season without Esteve wiping his backside.

Can’t disagree with this too much.

Esteve, Humphreys, Worrall, and Ekdal are all better ‘defenders’. I haven’t included Beyer as we have no idea if he will even get back to the level he was at before.

Yes, CJ was great at bringing the ball out and pinging it wide, but I also remember Beyer being very good in the Championship with his marauding runs. Means diddly squat in the Prem.

Good luck to CJ and I hope it works out for him.

[BigGaz]

He missed out on a loan move to the PSV reserves (would it have been beneficial, I don't know) due to the paperwork not being submitted in time I think.

Thank you, if that's helpful case then certainly, it's a fair point and we might've handled it better.

[dougcollins]

I said it before, it looks a strange move to me.

I can't imagine how anyone could believe they have a future at Chelsea.

[Bowclaret]

Cracking player and a massive surprise for us this last season.

Great move for him and sure it is the best for all concerned.

However, in the prem you need absolute monsters in defence and I would be pretty sure that the gaffer had an hand in sanctioning this move. OOC or not !

Parker will have learned what it needs from past mistakes I’m sure of this. Great player is CJ but, a monster he certainly is not.

Good luck to the lad - owes us nothing.