Baird started the season with Reading after signing from Fulham in the summer, this after six years at Craven Cottage where he played in 127 Premier League games for the West London club.
He started his career in the Premier League too, making his debut for Southampton in a 2-2 home draw against Aston Villa in March 2003, coming on as a substitute for David Prutton who is now with Sheffield Wednesday.
Just three months later the Country Antrim born player made his debut for Northern Ireland in a friendly against Italy. They lost the game 2-0 in Campobasso with a team that also featured future Clarets Steve Jones and Paul McVeigh.
He's since gone on to win 64 caps for his country, a total that has been bettered only by twelve players. He's still some way behind the top of that list; it's goalkeeper Pat Jennings who won a total of 119 caps.
The 2003/04 season saw him go out on loan twice to two Championship clubs, and this is where the link with our current manager comes. From September to November he was with Walsall and he played in our 3-1 home win against them when Delroy Facey scored all three Burnley goals.
He was to play at Burnley again that season. In March he joined Watford and played eight times for them. In all but the last of those games he played in a Watford team that included Dyche, with one of those games coming at Burnley in April 2004 when Watford won 3-2 when our goals were scored by Mark McGregor and Dele Adebola.
He returned to Southampton and went on to make 68 league appearances for them before a move to Fulham in the summer of 2007 for a fee of over £3 million. He played in a variety of positions for them and during our season in the Premier League was in the Fulham team for both games.
Baird was offered a deal by QPR last summer but opted for Reading. His contract with Reading was until January. He played nine times for them, including their Turf Moor defeat in October, but they weren't able to offer him a further deal in January, presumably because of the uncertainty of ownership there.
He's continued to train with them and now joins his former Watford team mate until the end of the season as Burnley look, one game at a time, to gain enough points for promotion.