 |
| Ben Mee has been voted as the best left-back |
Before we look at the fifteen candidates there is the small matter of reporting the result of the left-back vote which, like the goalkeeper and right-back votes, was won by the present incumbent.
Ben Mee was the clear winner with 66.9% of the vote with only one of the other six candidates winning double figures, that being Danny Fox who took second place with 12.3%.
Jon Harley, who was the regular number three for two seasons, came third with 7.7% of the vote and he was followed by Mo Camara (4.5%), both Stephen Jordan and Christian Kalvenes (3.2%), Danny Lafferty (1.5%) and Brian Easton (0.7%).
Heaton, Trippier and Mee start the team but over the next week the back four will be completed in two votes, the first of which will run for the next three days.
There are fifteen candidates starting with four who played in the first of those seasons as new manager Steve Cotterill reshaped the defence. He brought in all of Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair and John McGreal whilst signing Gary Cahill on loan during that first season.
Over the next two years, Cotterill added a number of other central defenders to the squad. Wayne Thomas in the summer of 2005 and Keith Lowe (another loan signing) was with us from Wolves for the first few months of that season.
Steven Caldwell was signed from Sunderland in January 2007 and the summer of that year saw both David Unsworth and Clarke Carlisle arrive at Turf Moor.
Stanislav Varga was Owen Coyle's first Burnley signing in January 2008, a third loan player to be considered, and in the summer transfer window of 2009, following promotion he signed Andre Bikey and David Edgar.
Edgar didn't make a debut until Brian Laws' first game in charge and the new manager signed Leon Cort in the January 2010 window just after Coyle had made his last signing, bringing in Kevin Long from Ireland.
Mee initially came in to play alongside Edgar in the centre of defence, an Eddie Howe signing in the summer of 2011, and the only other central defender to be signed by Burnley in the four and a half years since Cort is Jason Shackell who Howe signed from Derby in the 2012 close season.
How the vote will work? To allow you the option of voting for your favourite player in both votes it has been decided not to split them into two groups, potentially leaving your first two choices in the same group.
All fifteen players have been included in the first vote and on Saturday the same players, minus the winner will all be included again as you vote for the second central defender.
As always you can vote via the front page of the site or the VOTING POLLS page, and to confirm, this vote will run until the end of Friday.