New Champions book on the way
A book based on last season’s exploits, and written by Dave Thomas, will be published early next month.
The book, entitled ‘Champions Again’ kicks off last summer. Burnley was a club with an uncertain future. Owned by ALK an American company, just relegated, no manager, saddled with debts, facing a fire sale of the best players, the football experts were all quick to forecast doom and gloom with further relegations. The prognosis was bleak.
But enter Vincent Kompany, a legend at Manchester City who’d enjoyed modest success as Anderlecht manager in Belgium. 16 new players arrived in that summer window. There was a slightly stuttering start to the season on the pitch, but then the wins began to mount up with a brand of football quite the opposite of what fans had seen during the previous seasons.
This new football was possession based, fast wingers and inverted full-backs. The handful of players retained from the Dyche years became the core and loved the new style of play. Plus, there was a goalkeeper that was an extra midfield player. New and old players gelled perfectly.
As the season progressed, records were broken, the goals and wins mounted up, the clean sheets accumulated, the fans purred with appreciation. Promotion was won with seven games to spare. The title was won at Blackburn Rovers of all places. The celebrations were unbridled, the joy unrestrained, fans and players delirious with the achievement.
Kompany was acclaimed Championship Manager of the Season. There were 101 points by the season’s end and 29 wins with only three defeats. This book is the story of how it all happened. Nobody expected it.
It was also the season when we said goodbye to Ashley Barnes. Legend and cult hero; few players are both. It was emotional.
Barry Fry, one of football’s great characters summed it all up perfectly. “What Kompany has done at little Burnley is miraculous.”
The book is due for release on 7th August, just days before we kick off again in the Premier League. It’s a hardback book of 320 pages with a foreword by striker Jay Rodriguez. It’s priced at £18.99. It’s available to pre-order on AMAZON or you can EMAIL Dave Thomas directly.
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