A lot has happened at Burnley since Steve last spoke after the Preston game, there were even wild rumours during the day that he might not even be at Brighton come kick off time, but he was there and after watching the Clarets pick up a point from a dreadful goalless draw he had plenty to say.
On the match Steve said, “It was a tough match on a hard pitch and the ball didn’t seem to stick for either side. But the clean sheet is important and we know we may not be as free scoring now, so it is just as important that we concentrate on the other end of the pitch.
“It will be nice to be back at home on Saturday because we have had nothing but travelling and hopefully there will be a decent crowd there and they can get right behind he boys now through to the end of the season.
“With the transfer deadline gone, we need to regroup again and save the money that we’ve got and hopefully it will earn a bit of interest. It is not fair on the chairman to give the figure, but most of it is not quite the amount we have to spend.
“There is a fair bit to speculate with though and maybe we will have to look at where we are going to spend it carefully.”
It was the first time Steve had spoken of the departure of Ade Akinbiyi, a sale that was a big disappointment to him. “Things go on,” he said, “Burnley Football Club is bigger than all of us and Ade has gone. We will miss his presence, he’s a fantastic lad and one of the best I’ve ever worked with. I was upset when he went and I was as close to crying as I can be.
“We turned him into a £2 million player again so we must have done something right with him. We wish him all the best and I expect him to be the top scorer in the Championship.”
He spoke about his future at Burnley, he spoke about the approach from
And on his work at Turf Moor and his future, “Everyone wants to push on from what has been built here in the last eighteen months because it has been absolutely phenomenal. And it isn’t just on the pitch where work has been done. We have a new training pitch for a start and you might not think ‘wow’.
But when I first got here it was a disgrace really and you wouldn’t have had a bunch of pigs running around on it.
“We have a fantastic training pitch now that is as good as anything that you could train on in the Championship and I’ve very proud to be part of that. My ties to this club are really strong now, that is why we got that training pitch that cost nearly £300,000, because Burnley FC needed one, not for Steve Cotterill and the current players. It will always be there now.
“I have loved every minute I’ve had at
He ended by saying, “We’ll have some frustrating times between now and the end of the season, just like we did when we lost Blake last year. We’ve got to make sure we stick together with all those lads and be with them all the way, no matter what. That’s where we are at the minute and we are probably punching above our weight.
“We’re tenth in the league, and we’ve been fifth this season. I’m sure with what we’ve built since I’ve been at the club, it has been an unbelievable achievement from everybody.”