When Burnley had a homegrown team, most of the players weren't local lads.

As a child there was no pyramid system to get to play for Burnley.

Just supposing Burnley WERE the town team.

There must be a reason why they are not, but I don't know.


If there were an alternative professional club that was entirely local-born whatever the catchment area is geographically, I wonder what local football interest would be and how society in Burnley might have been different, from 1860 to the present.

Burnley had a large Scottish influx coming down for work in the new mills (Burnley came late in the industrial Revolution). It’s why there is/was a good few Presbyterian chapels dotted about.

So really very few families predate the 1860’s anyway. So to have so many Scots playing for Burnley was not really a big issue at the time.

I do wonder if teams could only pick local lads who would have the best team.


It seems every professional team in the country has a scouser in it so Liverpool would be up there. Manchester/ greater Manchester also seem to provide a lot.

Croydon area also provides a lot of decent players.

Burnley would struggle to make a 5 a side team

From what I saw on TV, Blackburn were the first town to buy the cup and they did the league a century later and to do that they hired professional players from Scotland to come down, I don't think they were raised locally.

Liverpool and Manchester and London schools I think prevail at schoolboy level, however if the only way to get a team together was local then there would be different social history.

Has someone Hacked your account pstotto?

Your distracting tactics for your like about Hockney, aren't fooling me, buddy.

I saw an article way back that said per head of population Middlesbrough had more pro footballers than anywhere else.

My great, great, great uncle played for Burnley in the 1883/84 season (our second) but was displaced in the following season by the first wave of Scottish imports. Almost from the start we were anything but a local club on the playing front.

minnieclaret wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:17 pm

I saw an article way back that said per head of population Middlesbrough had more pro footballers than anywhere else.

Another vote for the North East, my best mate played semi pro all his career and said he hated the North East teams, they are always monsters in terms of ability, size, power and aggression.