New Year News


By TheLongside.co.uk
January 1 2007

The match may have been called off because of the weather but someone's back at Turf Moor bringing the team the biggest boost of the season.

New Year News



(c) www.burnleyfc.com

High wind and rain over the past few days has prevented the club from using their matchsaver covers which would have been badly damaged in the gale force winds, more heavy rain, hail and even thunder welcoming us into the New Year hasn't done that stretch of the pitch by the Bob Lord stand much good and today's game against Stoke was post-poned not long after mid-day.

Hours before however, Burnley announced what must be the boost of the season, welcoming back Ade Akinbiyi in a £750,000 deal. He wouldn't have played today but was Lady Luck on our side. Surely when we play Stoke again, any money lost today and hopefully much improved performances will provide much increased crowds and an amazing atmosphere as Akinbiyi once again will face his old side Stoke wearing Claret and Blue.

We've sold Akinbiyi to Sheffield United for 1.75 Million, so we've made profit on him from that, but when you take into account the 600k we paid for him orginally, we've still paid less than Warnock for a player he really only used to get the Blades promoted.

He will be wearing the number 20 shirt as he did when he signed before (see above picture).

Steve Cotterill told the official website:

"I'm absolutely delighted to bring Ade back as I'm sure the supporters and his team mates will be, both those that he left behind and the new ones he will meet.

"He is a great character. He will need time to settle in though because he hasn't played too much regular football in the last 12 months.

"To be honest everybody knew what I thought of Ade in his previous spell here and I just thought when we were looking around for what was available, both in terms of money and the player, he was the best, but we'll need to make sure we give him time to get up to speed.

"I would imagine, all in all, that this is just the kind of lift we needed at this moment in time - probably for Ade as well.

"We are just looking forward to welcoming him back in the squad. He won't be doing any press over the next week or so.

"We just need to let him settle back into the club that loves him and I'm sure then he will then have plenty to say in the next week or two."

Regarding the match being called off referee Russell Booth told the official website:

"Unfortunately the elements have beaten us. The ground staff worked incredibly hard in trying conditions to get the pitch in the best possible shape.

"However, the full flank running the length of the Bob Lord Stand, with certain areas worse than others, was too saturated and would have caused problems for the players' safety.

"When we inspected the pitch at 11.30 it was still raining heavily and with more rain forecast throughout the day, it left us with no alternative but to call the game off."

Burnley FC facilities manager Doug Metcalfe added:

"We did everything possible in the 48 hours leading up to the game and from daylight on New Year's Day.

"Unfortunately, the high winds that we experienced over the weekend and in particular on New Year's Eve prevented us from using the covers. They are not usable in those sort of extreme winds and so we were a little exposed to the elements.

"However, I must stress that extensive work was done over the weekend in anticipation of the poor weather conditions.

"The groundstaff were out at first light preparing the pitch, but the downpour at 11am did irreparable damage and beat us."

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