Cotterill wants Djemba-Djemba

Last updated : 30 April 2007 By Tony Scholes
The Cameroon international joined the Clarets on 12th January in a loan deal until the end of the season and he made a promising debut against Southampton at St. Mary's the following day.

Three days later his home debut coincided with one of our worst performances of the season against Stoke and in his next game he was ridiculously sent off by Mike Riley at Derby which forced him out of the game at QPR.

With him not fully fit, and with Joey Gudjonsson and James O'Connor preferred in midfield, he had to settle for a place on the bench for the next six games but returned to the starting line up at Preston. Since then he's been an automatic choice with good performance after good performance, so much so that the Burnley fans would love to see him still wearing our claret and blue shirt come next season.

It's not just the fans, so does the manager and he's said that he will be looking at the possibility of bringing him back to Turf Moor for next season. He said: "Eric Djemba-Djemba has been fantastic for us and if there was an opportunity of keeping him I'd only be too delighted to have him. He's come in and definitely added something to us. He passes it as well as anyone has in my time here."

Our best, and probably only, chance of seeing him in play for us next season is if we can secure another long term loan deal with Villa where he remains under contract. I don't think we'll find many Clarets who wouldn't want to see the name Djemba-Djemba on our team sheet beyond next week.