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"The thing now is that in three or four years time, the club will be unrecognisable, so for the people of Burnley that is just magnificent. They love their team so to have all this is amazing."
He admitted that he'd had to keep the plans to himself for a while. "I first knew about this six to eight months ago and it was hard work not to tell everybody because I wanted everyone to know just how exciting the future is going to be. I am just really pleased for the fans because they can have a ground to be proud of."
As it is for many of us, it is the news of the academy that excites him most. "It looks like the academy is going to be coming our way, so it is great news for Burnley," he said. "Gawthorpe was one of my first big things and everyone knows that the pitch down there is my baby. I will take credit on that one because I think I ended up falling out with a few people that didn't want to spend that much money on a training pitch.
"But the pitch is absolutely magnificent down there and when the academy gets built then it will be even better. I couldn't be more delighted about it because Burnley is a great club and it needs great facilities and one thing nailed on is that we are going to have those great facilities now. We deserve to have them because it is the one thing that people hang their hat on in this town. They love their football club and we need to give them something to be proud of."
Looking at it as a means of attracting youngsters he added: "We just want to be brought up to speed with what the other clubs have got and be able to attract the best young kids. It isn't necessarily right, but parents and children are definitely influenced by what they see. It will be nice to know that in a few years they can be shown around and be impressed by that."