January 2022 Burnley Transfer Window Rumours - Links - Discussion

[JR1882]

I’m not sure Tarks strengthens Newcastle a great deal. He is a starting centre back in the leagues bottom side that has won 1 game all season. Barring the Arsenal game he’s also been pretty out of form too. He isn’t an enormous upgrade on what Newcastle have.

I’d try hold out till deadline day and have their pants down for £20m+ And give Collins half a season to bed in.

[warksclaret]

And if Collins does his ACL in his first game ??

[BabylonClaret]

Just proving Christie is versatile and even your match comments have stated he's showing his adaptability.

I don't need to argue black is white, I just proved that we tried to sign a player who can play across midfield, including centrally, something you've stated we didn't do.

It was easy enough, have a good day

Yep. Exactky what I meant and both he and Newcastle know that.

I thought we chased him for that versatility to pay centrally and imo crucially wide right. Because with Cor etc that could free Dwight to play centrally too.

I don't bother talking to krbfc though as he's a troll

[DCWat]

I’m not sure Tarks strengthens Newcastle a great deal. He is a starting centre back in the leagues bottom side that has won 1 game all season. Barring the Arsenal game he’s also been pretty out of form too. He isn’t an enormous upgrade on what Newcastle have.

I’d try hold out till deadline day and have their pants down for £20m+ And give Collins half a season to bed in.

Tarkowski had two poor games before the Arsenal game, where he was back to his usual levels. Prior to the two poor games, he’d been one of the better performers this season.

I’d love him to stay but if he wants one last pay day, he’s been great for us, and goes with my best wishes.

[Pearcey]

If I was a centre half I’d want to stay away from an Eddie Howe side. His sides are always a shambles defensively.

[Moorite]

Anyone else keep refreshing every few minutes to see if the signing has been confirmed?

[dermotdermot]

Yup!

[Quickenthetempo]

Ramsay has turned down 3 premier league clubs according to
https://twitter.com/NicoSchira/status/1 ... 8ocDQ&s=19
There's pure hatred in the replies from Juve fans. I daren't translate them.

[Steve1956]

Wow ......6 days to go and 72 pages of absolutely f***all has happened...why do we bother with these threads?

[claret3561]

Because everyone knows page 73 is where it all falls into place

[ClaretAndJew]

72, 72 pointless pages. 72, 72 I say. 72, 72 pointless pages. Doing transfers the Burnley way.

[Pearcey]

Ramsay has turned down 3 premier league clubs according to
https://twitter.com/NicoSchira/status/1 ... 8ocDQ&s=19
There's pure hatred in the replies from Juve fans. I daren't translate them.

I read somewhere he was waiting for Newcastle to come in. Which 3 clubs has he turned down? Only know of us and I thought Palace didn’t want him.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Ramsay has turned down 3 premier league clubs according to
https://twitter.com/NicoSchira/status/1 ... 8ocDQ&s=19
There's pure hatred in the replies from Juve fans. I daren't translate them.

Just translated a few, they're really ....annoyed with him

[Long Time Lurker]

If we get Orsic for 7 million and add that to Cornet so we get both for 20 million and yet sold Wood for 25 million would you call it fraud or praise the board/recruitment team?

I would call it risky and a bit daft.

We appear to be on the cusp of signing yet another left winger when we can't even accommodate the ever growing contingent of left footed wingers that we currently have. More importantly, he is another player who will have no resale value in a couple of years. This is important, because we don't have any money. I see posters considering the £60m Dell loan and voicing concern, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.

At a rough guess ALK bought the club with £60m from the Dell loan, £40m from our transfer money and £15m of their own money. That would equate to £115m, some of which would have be retained to serve as a cash flow. So potentially £110m. The rumours put the selling price of the club at around £180m, so I will call it £170m for easy number crunching. That would leave three payments of £60m to Garlick and Co outstanding ( 170 - 110 = 60 ) split over 3 scheduled repayments.

Now here is the worrying bit.

We need to pay £6m a year in interest on the Dell loan.

However, what nobody seems to be considering is the money that is still owed to Garlick and Co and the return on investment expected by the people who contributed to the £15m ALK put up. Yes, that counts as money owed, because they will want a return.

So, if we factor in a repayment plan that is very generous towards the club, where the ALK investors and Garlick and Co are paid back over a period of 10 years, that will equate to £7.5m a year we will need to put aside, every year for 10 years. If we are looking to pay back the lump sum of the Dell loan, instead of continually paying £6m a year that is another £6m we need to put aside.

To put it simply we are on the hook for £6m per year in interest payments and in order to pay off what the club owes over a period of 10 years we would have to put aside another £13.5m a year or learn to live with our debt and hope everyone is happy to wait forever to receive any money.

Throw in the money that we should be allocating the ground refurbishments. I'm not talking about the hospitality sections here and a lick of paint. I'm talking about the money needed to shore up the stands before they fall down.

Finally, add in the payments for any players bought on extended payment plans. If we buy a player at £10m and pay for them over 4 years that could add £2.5m to our seasonal outgoings if we split them equally over 4 years. And we will need 10 players over the next season or two at least.

Taking all of that into account it could add up to increased outgoing of roughly £45m ( £6m + £13.5m + £25m = £45m ). Now a couple of sub £10m players could lessen that total a bit, along with a few free transfers here and there. However, even with the recent business for Roberts and Hennessey I'm not overly optimistic on that front.

So forgive me for questioning whether spending £7m on an inverted left winger with no resale value, who hasn't been tested in a top tier league, is a FANTASTIC piece of business. Especially when we are struggling to accommodate Cornet, the last left footed winger that we bought.

DISCLAIMER ( If it wasn't obvious ) - The figures I just talked through have no factual basis, I can't say they are 100% accurate, but given all of the informational bits and bobs that accompanied that take over I think they are probably close. If I had to pick out one item out as being wide of the mark it would be the timescale that I attributed to the repayment plan. I think Garlick and Co will be expecting to receive their outstanding monies sooner.

In my opinion we can't afford to be buying players with no long term playing future or financial return. Neither should we be cock a hoop at the idea of signing a player who has a good scoring record in a Mickey Mouse league.

And yes, for those wondering the Croation League is not very competitive. Zagreb win the title every single year, qualifying for Europe which puts money into their bank account so they can continue to dominate their league. Some way beneath them are HNK Rijeka, NK Osijek, Hajduk Split, HNK Gorica and maybe NK Lokomotiva. The remaining four teams are cannon fodder whose only reason for being in the league is ritual humiliation.

With only 10 teams in the league each team plays every other team four times. So the bully boys of Zagreb get to play 36 matches against much weaker opposition including 16 matches against clubs that have no business being in the same league. It is no wonder that a lot of players at Zagreb and some of the other second tier clubs with ridiculous scoring records.

Not too long ago the rumour mill linking us with Lawrence Shankland and his phenomenal scoring record. However, that was mainly accrued in the Scottish Championship. Playing in that league he scored 62 goals in 120 games. Move him up to the Scottish Premiership and his scoring drops down to 7 goals in 46 games. Send him over to the goal friendly Juniper league and he has scored 1 goal in 15 games.

Scoring lots of goals in a Mickey Mouse league means nothing. However, I will say that from the bits and bobs I've seen of Orsic he looks a much better bet than Shankland.

Still, I'm worried when it comes to the playing front and the impact that Osric may or may not have on our chances. He has primarily played in a forward attacking three. Be that in a 3-4-3 or a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-4-1-2. That is the case with Zagreb and it was the same with Jeonnam Dragons.

That would mean playing him in a formation that he isn't used to or changing our formation to one that our players aren't used to. A formation that leans towards fast attacking football with technical flair and an emphasis on mobility and goals from midfield. A change that will naturally suit all of the other players we have. However, we do have the success story of our 1 win in 17 games this season to bolster the squads confidence in changing things up and playing differently.

That performance gain was a product of minor changes, switching Dwight to the right ( where he has to expend costly seconds to stop, turn and swap onto his favoured left foot ) or the encouragement to drift in to the centre to score when he plays on the left ( which has left Taylor stranded and broke up their successful overlapping creative drive down the left ) making him a lot less effective. On top of that pushing further up the pitch has cost our slow players the precious seconds they need to get back into a solid defensive shape, hurting our ability to respond to quick counter attacks.

However, Osric did play regularly in a 4-1-4-1 formation, along with a handful of games in a 4-4-2 line up shortly before they sold him, when he was at Ulsan Hyundai.

The obvious consistency throughout his playing career has been moves to dominant clubs placed in weak leagues. It will be interesting to see how he takes to one of the most physical and competitive leagues in football; playing in a team that has little possession, is heavily reliant on a solid defence to secure results, has no rapid players and a poor passing game.

So no, not a FANTASTIC bit of business in my opinion. Osric can definitely play and it might work, but it smacks of a last ditch transfer with a lot of speculative dice rolling and no future financial upside. OSRIC COULD BE THE PLAYER TO TURN AROUND OUR SEASON, but the transfer has far to what ifs and finger crossing maybes for my liking. It is also more of the same from us, thinking about today with no real plan for the future.

We needed a classical creative right winger, a central midfielder who could elevate our passing game and bolster our defence, along with a proven striker or a cheap stop gap or player with potential.

Oh, and our business in the Summer wasn't fantastic either. We targeted a lot of free transfer that were unlikely to go our way and then spent the entire window chasing two players. Our strategy to get their clubs to sell was to throw more and more money at them until they said yes.

Had another club stepped in to compete for the signature of either player, and offered more money or a more attractive destination, we could have ended the window with neither of them and what looked to be no Plan B. It is no wonder Pace was flying about to spur things along, we were a hairs breadth away from yet another cluster **** - after a full years planning.

People have commented on the masterstroke Newcastle played by poaching Wood. They strengthened their playing squad and weakened a rival at a crucial time. However, I think it went deeper. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The singular element that has been letting us down since we handed over recruitment to Mike Rigg has been our recruitment. On the pitch we can pull rabbits out of the hat and work miracles, but we have constantly been let down by poor recruitment and poor strategic planning in the past few years.

Thankfully Rigg has gone, but I still think recruitment is the chink in our armour. The signing of Wood shifted the potential for us to turn around our season. It took the emphasis away from our over achieving playing staff and players, placing it onto our recruitment team instead. They put our fate in the hands of a department that has continually failed to step up to the mark, giving them a mere two weeks to get the job done and perform a miracle.

That was the true masterstroke, Newcastle put the strain on our weakest organisational link.

PLEASE DON'T QUOTE THIS POST IN FULL - if you can't trim it down in the editor then simply preface your comment with RE:LTL

[Winstonswhite]

So Ramseys been told he won’t play for Juve again but won’t leave as he’s getting 400k a week, is that right??!

[Pearcey]

Just seen that he’s turned down us, Palace and Newcastle but the mirror says he’s now keen to go to Newcastle. Depends on whether they get Lingard.

[Pearcey]

“ We appear to be on the cusp of signing yet another left winger when we can't even accommodate the ever growing contingent of left footed wingers that we currently have. More importantly, he is another player who will have no resale value in a couple of years. This is important, because we don't have any money. I see posters considering the £60m Dell loan and voicing concern, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.”

From the YouTube clips I’d say he’s right footed.

[Long Time Lurker]

“ We appear to be on the cusp of signing yet another left winger when we can't even accommodate the ever growing contingent of left footed wingers that we currently have. More importantly, he is another player who will have no resale value in a couple of years. This is important, because we don't have any money. I see posters considering the £60m Dell loan and voicing concern, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.”

From the YouTube clips I’d say he’s right footed.

Sorry you are correct, this humble pie is mighty tasty. I was typing quickly and made a mistake.

A lot of sources actually refer to him as being equally comfortable with both feet, but all of the clips show that while he can use both he clearly favours his right.

He does however play on the left and has rarely played in any other positions. A handful of games as an attacking midfielder and a centre forward in a long career is not much to refer to.

[RMutt]

He is predominantly right footed. Our wide midfield players swop occasionally and I’m sure he could manage that.

[RVclaret]

Sorry you are correct, this humble pie is mighty tasty. I was typing quickly and made a mistake.

A lot of sources actually refer to him as being equally comfortable with both feet, but all of the clips show that he while he can use both he clearly favours his right.

He does however play on the left and has rarely played in any other positions. A handful of games as an attacking midfielder and a centre forward in a long career is not much to refer to.

Played as a centre forward against West ham this season and scored. Seems versatile. Costs a few million more than your suggestion of Jed Wallace. Let’s be honest Orsic is a completely different pedigree to him.

[Iloveyoubrady]

LTL - we don’t have to pay the £6M per year interest, ALK capital do. Why would Burnley need to pay interest on a loan which was taken out by another company to pay for Burnley. Burnley are in a good position financially due to Garlick and cos good work in removing any debt. We have not taken out any loans, ALK have. In fact, because they used Burnley’s cash to pay for some of the takeover, they actually also owe Burnley.

There is a lot of nonsense spoken about the takeover, people pretend that ALK have done something completely illegal and impossible.

And on the topic of Orsic, I would be keen to have him, because he’s got a great record (also against English clubs) and he’s got the two hugely important assets of being quick, and being a great ball striker. Yes he doesn’t have resale value, but we are replacing wood here with goals from the wing, to combine with a striker. Woods sale has earned the club 27 million, so investing that in a few players is vital. Orisic may be 29, but it is commonly known he is a late bloomer. Also, with a few years left in him, and with a record like his, he’s not much of a gamble at championship level - we should be a very good player at that level if we are to go down.

[Newcastleclaret93]

Burnley linked with Bamba Dieng from Marseille by RMC Sport

[RVclaret]

Burnley linked with Bamba Dieng from Marseille by RMC Sport

Scored today for Senegal

[gawthorpe_view]

From the YouTube clips I’d say he’s right footed.
[/quote]

First thing I looked for, does he prefer to use his right foot?
So RHS mid or right wing, Dwight on the left and we'll have the balance in attack we've been crying out for for the last 18 months or so.
Please Mr Dyche, don't invert.

[Newcastleclaret93]

Scored today for Senegal

Yes saw that.

Think this is more in the Cornet category of player. Young with potential sell on value

[Long Time Lurker]

LTL - we don’t have to pay the £6M per year interest, ALK capital do. Why would Burnley need to pay interest on a loan which was taken out by another company to pay for Burnley. Burnley are in a good position financially due to Garlick and cos good work in removing any debt. We have not taken out any loans, ALK have. In fact, because they used Burnley’s cash to pay for some of the takeover, they actually also owe Burnley.

Really ?

.. and what collateral do you think ALK Capital used to secure the loan ?

.. the personal assets of their investors ?

I think they used the club as security. In fact I would be amazed if they didn't. I also think that MDS will have built in a contingency that relates to relegation ( considering the impact it would have on our finances, the ability to pay them back and what has just happened to their investment in Derby ). I would also expect the recently re-negotiated payments to Garlick and Co to have a similar " relegation " clause in them.

[Long Time Lurker]

From the YouTube clips I’d say he’s right footed.

First thing I looked for, does he prefer to use his right foot?
So RHS mid or right wing, Dwight on the left and we'll have the balance in attack we've been crying out for for the last 18 months or so.
Please Mr Dyche, don't invert.
[/quote]

I think we would probably go 4-2-3-1 with the forward midfield 3 being Osric on the left, Dwight in the middle and Cornet on the right.

[LaLigaClaret]

LTL - Just when we see a bit of positivity we always get negativity thrown at us from posters who want to find fault with everything. Actually most leagues are dominated by one or a very limited number of teams and those are the ones with big money. Strange how there are quite a few Croatian players who seem to be playing for teams riding high in their leagues throughout Europe and yet they started in the Croatian Micky Mouse League. It doesn't necessarily follow that players play at a level that reflects their transfer value sometimes they fall miserably short and sometimes they greatly exceed their transfer value. Cornet seems to be proving a point in that respect. Perhaps you would rather we had strikers who can't hit a cow a**e with a banjo from two yards. Wait at the moment we do ! I would rather we had a player who knows where the net is after all the goal is the same size no matter what league they play in.

[nyclaret]

Burnley linked with Bamba Dieng from Marseille by RMC Sport

Our French scout is certainly earning his coin!

[RVclaret]

First thing I looked for, does he prefer to use his right foot?
So RHS mid or right wing, Dwight on the left and we'll have the balance in attack we've been crying out for for the last 18 months or so.
Please Mr Dyche, don't invert.

I think we would probably go 4-2-3-1 with the forward midfield 3 being Osric on the left, Dwight in the middle and Cornet on the right.

Yep that’s the dream line up isn’t it? With a new striker ahead of them.

[NewClaret]

Burnley linked with Bamba Dieng from Marseille by RMC Sport

Time for another Google

[Long Time Lurker]

LTL - Just when we see a bit of positivity we always get negativity thrown at us from posters who want to find fault with everything. Actually most leagues are dominated by one or a very limited number of teams and those are the ones with big money. Strange how there are quite a few Croatian players who seem to be playing for teams riding high in their leagues throughout Europe and yet they started in the Croatian Micky Mouse League. It doesn't necessarily follow that players play at a level that reflects their transfer value sometimes they fall miserably short and sometimes they greatly exceed their transfer value. Cornet seems to be proving a point in that respect. Perhaps you would rather we had strikers who can't hit a cow a**e with a banjo from two yards. Wait at the moment we do ! I would rather we had a player who knows where the net is after all the goal is the same size no matter what league they play in.

I don't personally see anything wrong with a cautious approach, a little negativity and a willingness to question things.

Had more people done that over the course of the last couple of years, instead of cheering on failure after failure and bending over backwards to make excuses, we might be in a better position now.

As I said, Osric might be the player to save our season and for me the strongest signing argument could be that with 6 days to go anything is better than nothing.

After all, nothing else looks close and we even had to suffer the indignity of apparently being turned down by Andy Carroll - although I wouldn't rule out the possibility of us trying again if that really was the case.

However, taking into account that Vydra might leave us on a free transfer, the rest of our strikers are clocking on and Wood had his release clause we should have been looking at strikers in the Summer or this window - as soon as it opened. We should not have been waiting around until somebody forced us to act when we obviously didn't intend to. Like I said, our forward thinking is practically non existent in terms of recruitment, we are the atypical lastminute.com unlike a lot of other clubs.

[warksclaret]

If Newcastle prepared to pay £27m for a 30 year old with no current form, it makes paying £7m for Orsic seem small change, and he will add more at present than we have lost with Wood.We are desperate for someone who can instictively shoot at goal, and he may enable us to do a lot better at direct free kicks close to the opponents goal. Lets get him over the line

[CharlieinNewMexico]

Weird I was watching that game earlier and googled him after he came on as he looked raw and powerful. Admittedly loads of space for him against a rearranged back line pushing forward. He only just joined Marseille in the summer from a Senegal league team so would it be enough for WP points?

Only 21 mind you, loads of potential.

[gawthorpe_view]

Time for another Google

5'10" so a number 10 rather than a centre forward?

[Pearcey]

Burnley linked with Bamba Dieng from Marseille by RMC Sport

Also says Newcastle, West Ham and Palace are interested.

[corporal jones]

No resale value? At 7 million who cares. It’s down the back of the sofa money. Get it done!

[NewClaret]

5'10" so a number 10 rather than a centre forward?

Looks it.

Just scouted him for two minutes and he’s a no from me. If that was the highlights I’d hate to see what they edited out!!

Wish we’d just get linked with Bayo.

[Taffy on the wing]

I would call it risky and a bit daft.

We appear to be on the cusp of signing yet another left winger when we can't even accommodate the ever growing contingent of left footed wingers that we currently have. More importantly, he is another player who will have no resale value in a couple of years. This is important, because we don't have any money. I see posters considering the £60m Dell loan and voicing concern, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.

At a rough guess ALK bought the club with £60m from the Dell loan, £40m from our transfer money and £15m of their own money. That would equate to £115m, some of which would have be retained to serve as a cash flow. So potentially £110m. The rumours put the selling price of the club at around £180m, so I will call it £170m for easy number crunching. That would leave three payments of £60m to Garlick and Co outstanding ( 170 - 110 = 60 ) split over 3 scheduled repayments.

Now here is the worrying bit.

We need to pay £6m a year in interest on the Dell loan.

However, what nobody seems to be considering is the money that is still owed to Garlick and Co and the return on investment expected by the people who contributed to the £15m ALK put up. Yes, that counts as money owed, because they will want a return.

So, if we factor in a repayment plan that is very generous towards the club, where the ALK investors and Garlick and Co are paid back over a period of 10 years, that will equate to £7.5m a year we will need to put aside, every year for 10 years. If we are looking to pay back the lump sum of the Dell loan, instead of continually paying £6m a year that is another £6m we need to put aside.

To put it simply we are on the hook for £6m per year in interest payments and in order to pay off what the club owes over a period of 10 years we would have to put aside another £13.5m a year or learn to live with our debt and hope everyone is happy to wait forever to receive any money.

Throw in the money that we should be allocating the ground refurbishments. I'm not talking about the hospitality sections here and a lick of paint. I'm talking about the money needed to shore up the stands before they fall down.

Finally, add in the payments for any players bought on extended payment plans. If we buy a player at £10m and pay for them over 4 years that could add £2.5m to our seasonal outgoings if we split them equally over 4 years. And we will need 10 players over the next season or two at least.

Taking all of that into account it could add up to increased outgoing of roughly £45m ( £6m + £13.5m + £25m = £45m ). Now a couple of sub £10m players could lessen that total a bit, along with a few free transfers here and there. However, even with the recent business for Roberts and Hennessey I'm not overly optimistic on that front.

So forgive me for questioning whether spending £7m on an inverted left winger with no resale value, who hasn't been tested in a top tier league, is a FANTASTIC piece of business. Especially when we are struggling to accommodate Cornet, the last left footed winger that we bought.

DISCLAIMER ( If it wasn't obvious ) - The figures I just talked through have no factual basis, I can't say they are 100% accurate, but given all of the informational bits and bobs that accompanied that take over I think they are probably close. If I had to pick out one item out as being wide of the mark it would be the timescale that I attributed to the repayment plan. I think Garlick and Co will be expecting to receive their outstanding monies sooner.

In my opinion we can't afford to be buying players with no long term playing future or financial return. Neither should we be cock a hoop at the idea of signing a player who has a good scoring record in a Mickey Mouse league.

And yes, for those wondering the Croation League is not very competitive. Zagreb win the title every single year, qualifying for Europe which puts money into their bank account so they can continue to dominate their league. Some way beneath them are HNK Rijeka, NK Osijek, Hajduk Split, HNK Gorica and maybe NK Lokomotiva. The remaining four teams are cannon fodder whose only reason for being in the league is ritual humiliation.

With only 10 teams in the league each team plays every other team four times. So the bully boys of Zagreb get to play 36 matches against much weaker opposition including 16 matches against clubs that have no business being in the same league. It is no wonder that a lot of players at Zagreb and some of the other second tier clubs with ridiculous scoring records.

Not too long ago the rumour mill linking us with Lawrence Shankland and his phenomenal scoring record. However, that was mainly accrued in the Scottish Championship. Playing in that league he scored 62 goals in 120 games. Move him up to the Scottish Premiership and his scoring drops down to 7 goals in 46 games. Send him over to the goal friendly Juniper league and he has scored 1 goal in 15 games.

Scoring lots of goals in a Mickey Mouse league means nothing. However, I will say that from the bits and bobs I've seen of Orsic he looks a much better bet than Shankland.

Still, I'm worried when it comes to the playing front and the impact that Osric may or may not have on our chances. He has primarily played in a forward attacking three. Be that in a 3-4-3 or a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-4-1-2. That is the case with Zagreb and it was the same with Jeonnam Dragons.

That would mean playing him in a formation that he isn't used to or changing our formation to one that our players aren't used to. A formation that leans towards fast attacking football with technical flair and an emphasis on mobility and goals from midfield. A change that will naturally suit all of the other players we have. However, we do have the success story of our 1 win in 17 games this season to bolster the squads confidence in changing things up and playing differently.

That performance gain was a product of minor changes, switching Dwight to the right ( where he has to expend costly seconds to stop, turn and swap onto his favoured left foot ) or the encouragement to drift in to the centre to score when he plays on the left ( which has left Taylor stranded and broke up their successful overlapping creative drive down the left ) making him a lot less effective. On top of that pushing further up the pitch has cost our slow players the precious seconds they need to get back into a solid defensive shape, hurting our ability to respond to quick counter attacks.

However, Osric did play regularly in a 4-1-4-1 formation, along with a handful of games in a 4-4-2 line up shortly before they sold him, when he was at Ulsan Hyundai.

The obvious consistency throughout his playing career has been moves to dominant clubs placed in weak leagues. It will be interesting to see how he takes to one of the most physical and competitive leagues in football; playing in a team that has little possession, is heavily reliant on a solid defence to secure results, has no rapid players and a poor passing game.

So no, not a FANTASTIC bit of business in my opinion. Osric can definitely play and it might work, but it smacks of a last ditch transfer with a lot of speculative dice rolling and no future financial upside. OSRIC COULD BE THE PLAYER TO TURN AROUND OUR SEASON, but the transfer has far to what ifs and finger crossing maybes for my liking. It is also more of the same from us, thinking about today with no real plan for the future.

We needed a classical creative right winger, a central midfielder who could elevate our passing game and bolster our defence, along with a proven striker or a cheap stop gap or player with potential.

Oh, and our business in the Summer wasn't fantastic either. We targeted a lot of free transfer that were unlikely to go our way and then spent the entire window chasing two players. Our strategy to get their clubs to sell was to throw more and more money at them until they said yes.

Had another club stepped in to compete for the signature of either player, and offered more money or a more attractive destination, we could have ended the window with neither of them and what looked to be no Plan B. It is no wonder Pace was flying about to spur things along, we were a hairs breadth away from yet another cluster **** - after a full years planning.

People have commented on the masterstroke Newcastle played by poaching Wood. They strengthened their playing squad and weakened a rival at a crucial time. However, I think it went deeper. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The singular element that has been letting us down since we handed over recruitment to Mike Rigg has been our recruitment. On the pitch we can pull rabbits out of the hat and work miracles, but we have constantly been let down by poor recruitment and poor strategic planning in the past few years.

Thankfully Rigg has gone, but I still think recruitment is the chink in our armour. The signing of Wood shifted the potential for us to turn around our season. It took the emphasis away from our over achieving playing staff and players, placing it onto our recruitment team instead. They put our fate in the hands of a department that has continually failed to step up to the mark, giving them a mere two weeks to get the job done and perform a miracle.

That was the true masterstroke, Newcastle put the strain on our weakest organisational link.

PLEASE DON'T QUOTE THIS POST IN FULL - if you can't trim it down in the editor then simply preface your comment with RE:LTL

Please go and have a lay down somewhere!

[NewClaret]

No resale value? At 7 million who cares. It’s down the back of the sofa money. Get it done!

Yeah, who cares. Hopefully a rich oil team will be desperate for a LW when he’s 33 and pay his £50m release clause.

Seriously though - we’re in a relegation battle. We need players in form and ready to hit the ground running. We can’t afford talent that needs developing.

[KateR]

I would call it risky and a bit daft. NO IT'S NOT

Now here is the worrying bit. ALL TRANSFERS HAVE SOME WORRY, DON'T AGREE WITH A LOT OF YOUR WORRIES

So forgive me for questioning whether spending £7m on an inverted left winger with no resale value, who hasn't been tested in a top tier league, is a FANTASTIC piece of business. Especially when we are struggling to accommodate Cornet, the last left footed winger that we bought. HE'S YOUNGER THAN WOOD, NO DOUBT A CLAUSE IN IF WE ARE RELEGATED WILL ALLOW HIM TO BE SOLD, 7 MILLION TO POTENTIALLY AVOID US DROPPING EPL MONEY NEXT SEASON "NO BRAINER" HE WILL HAVE A FEW MONTHS TO PROVE HIMSELF, WIN WIN SITUATION

In my opinion we can't afford to be buying players with no long term playing future or financial return. Neither should we be cock a hoop at the idea of signing a player who has a good scoring record in a Mickey Mouse league. PRICE IS CHEAP, HE'S PROVED HIMSELF IN EUROPE AND INTERNATIONALS, WE CAN'T AFFORD NOT TO GET HIM AT THIS PRICE

We needed a classical creative right winger, a central midfielder who could elevate our passing game and bolster our defence, along with a proven striker or a cheap stop gap or player with potential. HE CAN PLAY RIGHT WING I'M SURE, I WOULD BE EXTREMELY SUPRISED IF HE WAS NOT BETTER THAN WHAT'S AVAILABLE NOW

In terms of ALK and the debit, it's well know, it's a well know business deal and not one they just made up, action is needed now so basically I disagree with your whole post but we all have opinions, we will see in May.

[Long Time Lurker]

Yep that’s the dream line up isn’t it? With a new striker ahead of them.

..............Pope

..Roberts Tarks Mee Taylor

......Westwood Cork

.....Cornet McNeil Osric

..........Jay Rod

That would be the formation that appears to play to the strengths of all the players. Jay Rod being our only fit striker at the moment.

However, it would require the team to take on and master a completely new formation at a very crucial time.

For me, that would be a very big ask.

We would also be playing football the way that every other team probably wishes we would play, just like them.

Only they are better set up to play that way and their players are generally, younger, quicker and have more technical flair.

[LaLigaClaret]

I don't personally see anything wrong with a cautious approach, a little negativity and a willingness to question things.

Had more people done that over the course of the last couple of years, instead of cheering on failure after failure and bending over backwards to make excuses, we might be in a better position now.

As I said, Osric might be the player to save our season and for me the strongest signing argument could be that with 6 days to go anything is better than nothing.

After all, nothing else looks close and we even had to suffer the indignity of apparently being turned down by Andy Carroll - although I wouldn't rule out the possibility of us trying again if that really was the case.

However, taking into account that Vydra might leave us on a free transfer, the rest of our strikers are clocking on and Wood had his release clause we should have been looking at strikers in the Summer or this window - as soon as it opened. We should not have been waiting around until somebody forced us to act when we obviously didn't intend to. Like I said, our forward thinking is practically non existent in terms of recruitment, we are the atypical lastminute.com unlike a lot of other clubs.

I agree LTL with the above and I have been criticised in the past by other posters for being critical of the club in the way you suggested here. However we need to find positivity in trying to address getting badly needed incoming players. I just don't agree with your assessment of Orsic playing in a Micky Mouse League making him an unsuitable buy for us. I hope we can pull in some more in the remaining days of this window, those with pace, likely to be creative and can pass a ball to a teammate. The ability to score goals in our current predicament is a must I would have thought. A holding midfielder with good tackling, keeping possession and linking up play is also needed.

[Iloveyoubrady]

Really ?

.. and what collateral do you think ALK Capital used to secure the loan ?

.. the personal assets of their investors ?

I think they used the club as security. In fact I would be amazed if they didn't. I also think that MDS will have built in a contingency that relates to relegation ( considering the impact it would have on our finances, the ability to pay them back and what has just happened to their investment in Derby ). I would also expect the recently re-negotiated payments to Garlick and Co to have a similar " relegation " clause in them.

Having to sell the club, or even losing it to pay for the MSD loan is ALKs issue, not BFC, ALK would still owe Burnley FC if they have to sell or even lose the club.

Anyway, so far I think they’ve done a good job, and are starting to move the club forward (even if it doesn’t look like it on the league table) and signing orsic would be another good step IMO.

[corporal jones]

..............Pope

..Roberts Tarks Mee Taylor

......Westwood Cork

.....Cornet McNeil Osric

..........Jay Rod

That would be the formation that appears to play to the strengths of all the players. Jay Rod being our only fit striker at the moment.

However, it would require the team to take on and master a completely new formation at a very crucial time.

For me, that would be a very big ask.

We would also be playing football the way that every other team probably wishes we would play, just like them.

Only they are better set up to play that way and their players are generally, younger, quicker and have more technical flair.

Ok you are right. Let’s not bother and carry on as we are. Oh no hang on we are bottom and going down!

[burnleymik]

Seriously though - we’re in a relegation battle. We need players in form and ready to hit the ground running. We can’t afford talent that needs developing.

All we need to know is if the player is better than we currently have for their position.

[Paul Waine]

I would call it risky and a bit daft.

At a rough guess ALK bought the club with £60m from the Dell loan, £40m from our transfer money and £15m of their own money. That would equate to £115m, some of which would have be retained to serve as a cash flow. So potentially £110m. The rumours put the selling price of the club at around £180m, so I will call it £170m for easy number crunching. That would leave three payments of £60m to Garlick and Co outstanding ( 170 - 110 = 60 ) split over 3 scheduled repayments.

Now here is the worrying bit.

We need to pay £6m a year in interest on the Dell loan.

However, what nobody seems to be considering is the money that is still owed to Garlick and Co and the return on investment expected by the people who contributed to the £15m ALK put up. Yes, that counts as money owed, because they will want a return.

So, if we factor in a repayment plan that is very generous towards the club, where the ALK investors and Garlick and Co are paid back over a period of 10 years, that will equate to £7.5m a year we will need to put aside, every year for 10 years. If we are looking to pay back the lump sum of the Dell loan, instead of continually paying £6m a year that is another £6m we need to put aside.

DISCLAIMER ( If it wasn't obvious ) - The figures I just talked through have no factual basis, I can't say they are 100% accurate, but given all of the informational bits and bobs that accompanied that take over I think they are probably close. If I had to pick out one item out as being wide of the mark it would be the timescale that I attributed to the repayment plan. I think Garlick and Co will be expecting to receive their outstanding monies sooner.

PLEASE DON'T QUOTE THIS POST IN FULL - if you can't trim it down in the editor then simply preface your comment with RE:LTL

Hi LTL, have you read any of the other posts relating to ALK's acquisition of Burnley? Yes, it's right that you included your disclaimer.

The figures reported in the media are ALK paid £170 million for 84% of the club, £102 million paid to complete the transfer of shares and £68 million payable in three instalments. Alan Pace, Mike Garlick and John B confirmed last week that these 3 instalments are not yet due. I've suggested a few times on here that I believe the 3 instalments are due at the end of this season and the next two seasons, provided BFC remain in the Premier League. The logic is MG/JB wanted to sell a Premier League team, ALK agreed this price, but they were also aware of the risk of relegation, so they only pay the full £170 million if the club isn't relegated in their first full 3 seasons in charge - this gives ALK plenty of time to re-fresh the playing squad.

Loan from MSD, reported to be £60 million, is to Calder Vale - based on the Debenture available to read online in Companies House filings. Based on the information disclosed by Southampton on their loan from MSD we assume that Calder Vale loan is charged interest of 9% which equates to £5.4 million. It is possible (I can't remember if there's any public domain disclosure) that interest is not payable annually, but added each year to the medium term loan - a "pay-in-kind" loan. The Debenture discloses that there is a Term Loan Agreement between MSD and Calder Vale. The TLA (which is not in the public domain) reveals that there is a Guarantor. We've also learnt recently that Mel Morris provided a personal guarantee for the loan he took from MSD for Derby. We can assume that Alan Pace and possibly other ALK directors, have provided their personal guarantees to MSD. Kettering Capital is also party to the TLA - and has provided security. Burnley Football Club Holdings Limited executed a Security Accession Agreement, adding BFC land and buildings, i.e. Turf Moor and Barnfield to the security for the MSD loan. Again, we know this because this document is filed at Companies House.

According to reports, ALK commenced with £15 million equity. Equity is not a loan. Equity gets a return when profits have been made or when the equity is bought by someone else for a higher price than the original investors paid in. Equity is last in the queue to receive returns - but, of course, can make the most money if the investment is successful.

ALK's cash flows are massively different from those you imagine. There is the possibility that additional investors have already been added to the original £15 million. I know there's nothing clear cut been announced, but we all saw photos/video of the NFL "superstar" in his, very smart, Claret suit. On the other hand, I expect the £68 million owed to MG/JB will be payable at the end of this season and the next two seasons, not necessarily in equal amounts. But, if BFC are relegated, then the payment for that season will be cancelled, thus mitigating the cash flow impacts. Finally, it is feasible that, at the end of the term loan period, believed to be 6 years, the loan will be re-financed with a new loan and on terms appropriate to the club's performance at that time.

UTC

[Mala591]

Orsic has been playing as a left winger/inside left which is McNeil’s best position. Cornet is also (imo) much more effective playing on the left side of the centre forward, so Pace and Dyche must have some cunning plan to change our formation which will get the best out of all three players.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mislav- ... aison/2021

[Mala591]

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mislav- ... rainer_id=

This is more accurate as it shows his stats in all competitions

[minnieclaret]

Scored today for Senegal

Who are through to the next round. Is it 6 days to go?
Negotiations, medical, WP. This could get messy