The Old and the New

Last updated : 12 December 2003 By Richard Oldroyd

Paul Weller - testimonial
Firstly, there are moves off the field which indicate that the club, at last are getting it right in that department. Dave Edmundson has shown a willingness to try a string of creative measures which deserve to entice fans back onto the Turf.

Similarly, Barry Kilby’s proposal to buy Turf Moor Leisure Centre represents an impressive gesture from the chairman. It may make Barry Kilby landlord over the separate company which runs the leisure centre and community program, but the only effect it will have on Burnley Football Club is to make the club some quick bucks at a time when it desperately needs it. Whether or not the club does buy the land back, the club’s main business is football, not property development. This move virtually gives the club money for nothing – and gives Barry Kilby a piece of land as security on his latest loan.

Then the team has picked up into the bargain. That this has led to talk of the play-offs barely two weeks after talk of relegation was doing the rounds serves only to emphasise how fickle football is. Nevertheless, as we approach the halfway point, the big picture shows that we’re over half way to the survival target, have scored freely, and according to statistics been unlucky not to score more.

Slightly less important to the health of the club, but nevertheless significant, we have the news that Paul Weller has been granted the testimonial his service deserves. It is somewhat ironic that it coincides with Richard Chaplow’s emergence from the youth set up – something few have done since Weller himself.

Indeed Chaplow is the first product of the system to establish himself as a first division footballer since Weller himself, and Chaplow has done it at a much earlier stage in his career. The likes of Paul Smith showed promise, but now find themselves plying their trade in the lower reaches of the second division.

It is arguably the paucity of homegrown talent between Weller and Chaplow which lies behind the fervour with which Chappy’s performances have been greeted. Certainly, he has quickly embedded himself at the heart of Stan Ternent’s team, and, importantly, has visibly improved during his brief career to date. He has the potential to go far, but one cannot help thinking that there is a danger in heaping too much expectation on a player who still has much to learn. It is strange to think that, in less than six months, Chaplow has established himself as the crowd favourite that Paul Weller has never quite become.

Despite being a product of the youth team, and being a first team regular for eight years, Weller has never become as popular as one might expect him to have been. His name is never sung at Turf Moor, and indeed he has been a regular target for the boo-boys – despite regularly being one of our more consistent performers over that period. It is a sad reflection that any testimonial match will need to be carefully managed with a high-profile opposition to be a success, because many will come only because of the opposition, rather than to pay tribute to Paul Weller.

Crowd favourite Richard Chaplow
Why is this the case? Partly because of half truths and myths about his loyalty to the club, and partly because of serious illness and injuries which have blighted his career. Partly it might be because he is not a ‘real’ product of the youth system, being from Brighton originally and having come north at an advanced stage of his development – but just like the many players who arrived at Turf Moor from the North East in days gone by, Burnley were his first professional club. More than anything else, he seems to be a victim of circumstances which have conspired to deny him the appreciation amongst the fans that he deserves.

One of the most interesting things about Paul’s time at Burnley is the way his contribution has been perceived by the fans. He started out as a nippy, but diminutive, right winger at the very end of Jimmy Mullen’s reign, and has become a busy central midfielder under Stan Ternent. Nowadays, it is normal to hear other teams or neutrals describe him as ‘spiky’, or ‘abrasive’. Certainly, you will rarely hear him considered lightweight or soft.

Yet amongst many groups of Burnley fans, he has never been able to shake of this image of being lazy and afraid of the physical side of the game. It is a dramatic example of how fans who see him week in, week out, can form an opinion on a player which is at odds with those objective observers who see him on one off occasions. The same point occurred when Burnley fans identified Glen Little’s performance at Sunderland as disappointing – yet home fans and the national press selected him as one of our better players. Perhaps our views of Burnley players, coloured by the past and by popular pressure, are not always the most accurate.

It is worth remembering that when Weller burst onto the scene, more than a few people reckoned we’d struggle to keep hold of him for too long. Whilst he has cut himself a good career in the game, and is a respectable first division performer, he has – through no fault of his own – never reached the heights people predicted for him just over eight years ago. He was probably more popular as a player in the first few months of his first team career than he ever has since. The same applies to the talented Paul Smith when he made the breakthrough.

In the story of Paul Weller’s career, there may lie a cautionary tale for anyone going overboard about Richard Chaplow. A few injuries and a few rumours down the line, he too may become a nobody. You might say he is a better player than either of those two, and you might be right. But in all too many cases, this point proves to stand. Fans have short memories when it comes to those they once hailed as heroes. They move on to newer propositions far too quickly.

Paul Weller has endured this, and has also won much bigger challenges away from the game than football can ever offer. He deserves a testimonial, and he deserves it to be a success. But in applauding his achievement, just think about the lad ten years his junior who is just making the transition to senior football. Hopefully, if he does stay with us, he will fulfil his abundant potential - and get the consistent praise for his efforts that Paul Weller deserved, but never received.

But at the very least, give Paul Weller the acclaim now he has always deserved. Give him the acclaim he ought to have received for his efforts. And then keep supporting him for as long as he remains a claret.