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There are several reasons, all of them very different, but all of them simmering in the same recipe combining to result in demotion. You can put them in order according to your own opinions; but Coyle's defection, the decision to appoint Brian Laws, Brian Laws himself who seemed determined not to restore Bikey to centre-back, the players, the lowest number of tackles in the Premier league, missed chances at one end, poor defending at the other; eleven games lost by just the odd goal, the almost total absence of any decent run of the ball in the second half of the season, poor officiating in several games, the long absences of McCann, Caldwell and Paterson; and finally Brendan Flood's business problems ending his financial support; all these things were in the recipe.
Would Coyle have stayed if Brendan Flood had been able to continue to bankroll him? The likely scenario was that the Brendan Flood and Modus loans would not have been reclaimed and they would have been available for further investment. How much extra investment, £5million, £10million, would have persuaded Coyle to stay? We shall never know the answers. But all of these reasons blended to produce the sad end result. I wouldn't like to put them in any order save for Owen Coyle at number one. The whole sorry mess began with him and who will ever forget the infamous, toe-curling, jaw-dropping Sandy Stewart interview on the pitch at Milton Keynes.
At the end of season 2008/09, the promotion season, we knew that if they won at Wembley the team would be legends forever, but that things would not be easy. They did win, and if they did not give us a memorable Premiership season, they gave us the chance to be there and participate, for all its faults, in the greatest League in the world. That team deservedly won an award at the Supporters Clubs presentation night. The ensuing season certainly wasn't easy, but the final tame, spiritless capitulation in a number of games left most of us shaking our heads with a resigned regret. Maybe I won't remember too much of the season just gone, except for the unforgettable Man Utd game and the final Spurs game, but I'll most certainly remember the feats a handful of players performed in getting us there. Jensen, Duff, Carlisle, Caldwell, Kalvenes, Alexander, McCann, Elliott, Blake, Paterson, Thompson, Eagles, Rodriguez… these guys are in our hall of fame forever - the Band of Brothers. Something special happened in 2008/09.
In the week after the final game there was no immediate announcement whether Laws would be retained or not after the Monday Board meeting. For a few days there was great uncertainty until a statement announced he would be staying. It was announced that Caldwell and Jordan would not be retained. Blake wanted a first team place elsewhere if he couldn't get one here. Elliott, Eagles, Fletcher, Mears and possibly McCann seem coveted by others. Bikey had been the forgotten man, almost a latter-day Gnohere, sadly missed at centre-back, seemingly banished, until surprisingly recalled in the last game. Gudjonsson was frozen out weeks ago and then had his contract terminated. Kalvenes had gone well before the season ended. It was all terribly sad as we headed towards Championship anonymity again, although the improbable stadiarena and football university may bring us into the news, as well as syphoning off the parachute payments if these schemes are turned into bricks and concrete. A new housing estate on the slopes of that Icelandic volcano is probably more likely than any football university.
How fitting that the season should end with a game against a top side - Spurs. How ironic that the season should end with a rare win, a stunning win in fact, a win that reminded us how well they could play and what we had missed by not playing Bikey more at centre half over the last four months. It begged the questions did Brian Laws ever know his best team and was Cort an unnecessary purchase? Nor do we know at the moment if a better choice than Brian Laws could have been made as manager in January. Who else was short-listed? Who else was interested? Would the unbudgeted income of £1million compensation for Coyle have been better spent on a bonus paid to a 'big-name' manager for the half season, who might have kept us up? Should an attempt have been made to prise away an up and coming 'hungry' manager from another club, in just the same way that Coyle was taken away from Burnley? Was Brian Laws simply the economy measure?
For some it is Brian Laws who will carry the can for relegation and act the fall guy. But was he not on a loser from the minute he took over, given a "hospital pass," according to Barry Kilby in one newspaper piece. But was it not the decisions of Barry Kilby and Brendan Flood that resulted in his appointment? Were all the directors happy with it - answer - no. Most of us, if not all, had the same quizzical reaction on hearing of the appointment. I'll hazard a guess the players felt the same. Newspaper after newspaper described it as lack of ambition and the cheapest option. Eyebrows were raised.
The eventual May 12th announcement that he would stay as manager made all such questions and reactions irrelevant anyway.
Of course we had some wallopings, but all of them in places where we probably expected nothing less, but oh boy what a feeling it was when we went 2-0 up away at Manchester City and then equalised to make it 3-3 with minutes to go. You can't put a price or value on such moments, but you can store them away and remember them on rainy days, or when you've just lost in the last minute at places like Wigan, or to a vile cheated goal scored by Blackburn, and trudged home in despair. The home game against City, with most of the directors absent, was the nadir and the days following until we walloped Hull were some of the most depressing I can ever remember as a Burnley supporter, as Turf Moor was buried beneath a storm of anger, criticism, recriminations and strong stories of player unrest. Slowly most of it abated. There were boos during and after the Wolves game but eventually replaced by applause after the Liverpool game even after a 0-4 defeat.
The Premiership season was undistinguished; overall we didn't really cover ourselves in glory did we? There wasn't much of a fight at the end. If it was memorable, it was for the wrong reasons, not the least of which was the disreputable, self-seeking conduct of Owen Coyle when he left. Ambition is fine, we knew he would go, but there are occasions when the timing of advancement is selfish and unthinking and should be tempered by what is right for others. And here's another thing, anyone who was there at West Ham to see the 5-3 debacle will have seen that the Messiah was not infallible. The result that day was as much down to poor management, team selection and an inability to make early changes before it was too late. And, before he left, there had been a run of nine games without a win.
He could argue that Burnley's relegation was not solely due to his departure. But it rocked the whole fabric of the club and totally destroyed the wonderful team spirit that had taken us such a long way and was still very much intact. He might say that this was a team not good enough anyway. In fact did he not say words to that effect when he remarked that he had a better chance of managing in the Prem with Bolton rather than Burnley? The players probably loved him for that. And then later, in fact once relegation was assured, he claimed they were good enough to have stayed up. In other words, don't blame me. The game at the Reebok was purgatory. The result was sickening with a messy goal in off the crossbar. The football Gods truly deserted us. His applause for us at the end was repellent.
Quite definitely, some of the players themselves were the culprits from January onwards, having lost heart, simply going through the motions in a number of games. The 'nice' football continued in several games, but passion, the will to win, and determination had gone in several others. It was clear that what had once been a good bunch of pros were drifting and leaderless. They became a soft touch. It is fair to assume that Gudjonsson's snivellings were not entirely unfounded and there was no rush from senior players to distance themselves from what he had said or refute it.
Against all that however, it is certainly true to say that lady luck totally deserted us in game after game. In other games, rank bad decisions by officials cost us dear. Since Laws arrived we had normal run-of-the-ball in just three games, against Spurs, West Ham and Hull - and won them all - no coincidence.
The away game at Birmingham was instructive. Last season we played them off the park there, for 45 minutes looked like Barcelona, but typically gave away a daft goal. It was Burnley who looked the potential Premiership side. This season at Turf Moor it looked like there was only one team that would stay in the Prem… and it wasn't Birmingham. But, by May 1st, one team had progressed hugely and the other had gone backwards.
If we want to pick out certain games that stick in the mind, they start for me with Burnley 1 Villa 1 and the late equaliser by Heskey. It occurred to me then how significant that goal might be. We went to Portsmouth, missed easy chances, played them off the park for long, long spells and lost. A poor linesman's decision cost us a possible win at home to Arsenal. In the home game against Bolton it was Davies who backed into the defender but he got the free kick from which Bolton scored. Jordan's sending off at Everton probably cost us that game. How different the result would have been at Old Trafford had Fletcher and Nugent taken two golden chances. Two early injuries to key players at Bolton didn't help. Yes we were played off the park away at Fulham but two diabolical linesman's decisions gave Fulham two goals. Who on earth expected Portsmouth to come to Burnley and win, the state they were in; but a glaring missed header was instrumental in their win. Burnley gifted the home game to Wolves with a Mears error and a Carlisle deflection. No one will forget the cheated penalty for Blackburn at Turf Moor. The late winner away at Wigan was a heartbreaker. A Cort deflection set Liverpool on their way to victory. A stonewall penalty away at Birmingham was missed by the referee and Birmingham went on to win - with one goal from a free kick that was the result of another poor linesman's decision.
From January, survival slowly became an exercise in futility with the team being described after the penultimate weekend, by one journalist, as just "a mess of an outfit." From being widely admired and everyone's second favourite club way back in August, Burnley didn't quite become a laughing stock but it was heading that way until some dignity was restored with Burnley 4 Spurs 2. That last game made us think if only they'd showed more guts and played like that in just a few other games.
But all that is water under the bridge. The Spurs game was the last hoorah and the poignant farewell to something that we never expected in the first place. How we got there remains one of football's miracles. We tasted champagne, and every now and then it tasted good. Sure there was a lump in my throat and truth be known I don't really want to go to the likes of Barnsley or Watford again. There were moments in the season that I hated, but now that I've been to Stamford Bridge, The Emirates, Goodison, Anfield and all the other iconic places we'll now see only on Match of the Day, I'll miss them. We've seen a parade of stars at Turf Moor; Rooney, Giggs, Terry, Tevez, Adebayor, Fabregas and a dozen more, but now its back to Joe Bloggs from Doncaster and A N Other from Scunthorpe. We've played to packed houses; but attendances will now surely dwindle if mediocrity becomes the norm. Do we really have the determination, the players and resolve to do a Newcastle or a West Brom? The first six games of the new season will soon tell us. If those results are poor the grumbles and disillusion with Brian Laws and the men who decided to stick by him will quickly follow.
Once relegation was assured there was plenty of talk from Brian Laws, Barry Kilby and Brendan Flood of "going down strong" and bouncing back straightaway. But it seemed a strange notion when nothing was known about which players would be retained or offered new contracts. How can you say this when you've no idea what the basis of the team will be or who will be sold?
But: it was nice that the season should end at home, when no matter the result; we could wave our goodbyes to a season that is something difficult to see being repeated again. The Orient game of '87 was also on the 9th of May. But, despite the sadness and the wretchedness of the last few months; Sunday, May 9th, 2010 for me was a celebration. It was a celebration of a marvellous Wembley game that took place a year ago, and for that I thank what was then a wonderful bunch of players and the directors who subbed the club in the final weeks to pay the wages. We were members of the elite for just one season, just two wins short of another. In fact a 1-0 at Wigan instead of that heartbreaking 1-0 defeat would have sent them down and kept us up, if I've done the maths right. But no matter how many the 'ifs', or however many the reasons, I'll forever think we surrendered that Premiership place far too easily and Burnley 4 Tottenham 2 was a vivid reminder of what might have been.