Disgruntled Clarets fans this week following the sale of Danny Fox to Southampton may have been placated by the words of Brendan Flood to some degree yesterday. Our Operational Director has been trying to keep the Hampshire club at bay in their attempts to also sign striker, Jay Rodriguez. It would appear that the club have already turned down an offer of £4.5 million from the ambitious, newly promoted Championship rivals. Flood has also slapped a ‘Not for Sale` sign on the player but it is still expected that the Saints could increase their bid and there are rumours that some Premier Clubs could also be interested in the England Under 21 international including Newcastle and would you believe Arsenal! (I don`t!)
Surely though every player has his price and even the Club Statement following the sale of Fox recently made that obvious:
‘We will only sell when we feel the fee exceeds our own valuation and where we feel we can invest that capital in promising young players that will be given the opportunity to develop at Burnley Football Club; a policy that allows us to remain ambitious` said the statement
Well you will forgive me if I can`t stop laughing at the word ‘ambitious` but by the club`s own admission they must have a figure in mind for Jay Rod, so what happens if one of the clubs interested in him reach their valuation? Yes, quite he will be off!
What though would be the figure they would have in mind? £5 million? £6 million? £7 million? More?. A lot of Clarets fans would no doubt justify the sale of Jay Rod by calling it a good bit of business even though it would decimate our squad even more and at this late stage make it difficult to find replacements with the transfer window closing at the end of August. It would surely write off our promotion chances for this season even if they haven`t been already.
So could Brendan Flood`s words sound very hollow if this week they also agree to sell Jay Rod? What would also be the reaction from the Clarets fans? Already a sizeable number are angered and want some answers, could such a devastating bit of news push them over the edge and lead to protests against the Board?
Let`s look at Flood`s words and analyse them:
“There is nothing that would tempt us,” he said when asked if Rodriguez had a price.
“He is a local hero and he wants to achieve success for himself and for Burnley.
“He is very much part of our plans, as are a number of players who are here who want to play for Burnley.
“We were chased by, in particular, Portsmouth for Martin Paterson, and other clubs have enquired.
“We also had enquiries about Charlie Austin, but we don`t want to sell any of our forwards.
“The only players we have sold are those who didn`t want to be at Burnley.”
All sounds very good then but how foolish will those words look if something does tempt them to sell with an offer of £x million (with x anywhere between £5 million and silly money)?
What also would Jay Rod want to do if there was an offer on the table from a Premier League club? How would he feel about staying at Burnley rather than join his former colleagues at Southampton? We can only imagine and speculate but at least Jay Rod is a local boy and might want to stay but we used to say that about Richard Chaplow!
I just wonder too how many Clarets fans would also buy Flood`s statement that the only players the club have sold are those who didn`t want to be at Burnley.
He went on to say:
“Danny Fox, I don`t think, wanted to further his career at Burnley.
“The players who have left I don`t think wanted to stay at Burnley.
‘They are good lads, but their ambitions weren`t with the club.”
That may be true but shouldn`t the question be after a season in the top flight and all the hype associated with that, why players at this club no longer want to play for us? Is it because we have no ambition to return to the top flight, is it because we have reduced the salary cap to non-competitive levels or is there low morale now at the club? Would that morale not plummet even more if we also lost Rodriguez?
I don`t think anybody except those at the club could answer those questions and of course they would never do so in public so all we can do is take Flood at his word and hope Jay Rodriguez is still a Burnley player by the end of August and indeed is still with the club after the January transfer window also closes. Why don`t I feel confident that he will be? Guess I don`t need to spell that one out do I Barry?
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