Eddie Howe was interviewed by Daz Bentley after the Torquay victory in what was described as a bitter-sweet day.
By that of course Daz was suggesting the 3-1 win over Torquay at Plainmoor went someway to softening the blow following the earlier grim news before kick-off that Eagles and Mears would be allowed to speak to Owen Coyle’s Bolton with the two clubs having agreed £3 million for both players.
Poor Eddie therefore after the game had to put a brave face on things to try and justify the loss and indicate what he would try and do with the extra dosh heading his way.
Probably the most telling statement was his opening remark on Clarets Player which curiously seems to have been removed from the article on the Official website.
‘Always disappointing to lose your BEST players, he said indicating that both were excellent for the club last season.
Clarets fans will also remember a previous statement from Eddie that he intended to build his squad around his best players so the loss of Eagles and Mears should be viewed in that context in my opinion.
Howe continued:
‘It will be really sad if both lads go.
‘The difficulty there was the length of their contracts. They only had a year left and would have both left for nothing next summer, so I think from the club’s point of view £3 million is a lot of money and hopefully it’s money that we can use to bring in replacements.’
‘We always had this in the back of our minds with Chris and Ty, because of their contract situation, so it’s not absolutely unexpected. But we hadn’t heard anything previously and it happened very quickly yesterday. That’s football for you. It throws up unexpected twists and turns and we are going to have to react now.’
‘If the lads had three years left on their contracts the fee would be very different, but that’s the reality of football. We have tried to make both stay, but they want to play Premier League football and that lure is too great.
‘We’ll just have to wait and see what happens at the end of the day because at this point only the fee has been agreed, but we would be sorry to let them go. It’s a difficult one because you want to build a team capable of winning promotion, but at the same time there is the money to think about.’
‘We are obviously light now on numbers and we need to bring in some quality,’ Howe added. ‘The key thing is not to panic and the big challenge now, for us, is to identify the right players.
‘It does change who we need to look at because we had targets identified before Tyrone and Chris, so we might have to re-think slightly.’
All Clarets fans whether happy or not with the situation at the club will at least be hoping that these extra replacement targets, indeed all targets will soon be on board with just two weeks left before the new season kicks-off.
Share this article
