A little Burnley roundup for your Thursday:
Sean Dyche Rumors
The word is that if Crystal Palace wants Sean Dyche, they’ll have to pay Burnley three million pounds. Meanwhile, Brentford winning Saturday helps the cause for keeping Dyche, as Palace is reportedly interested in Swansea boss Steve Cooper, and Eddie Howe was the narrow betting favorite as of a few days ago.
Transfer Rumors
Leicester is expected to make another run at James Tarkowski, but Burnley might not sell. Defenders are on the shopping list, though, with Liverpool’s Nat Phillips, Nottingham Forest’s Joe Worrall, Stoke City’s Nathan Collins, and Middlesbrough’s Dael Fry all mentioned in that afore-linked piece and Victor Nelsson, the Denmark U21 captain, reportedly a target as well.
Awards Winners
Chris Wood was named Player of the Year Friday night, as well as the Players’ Player of the Year, which was voted on by the Burnley players.
Matt Lowton won the Goal of the Season award for that Crystal Palace scorcher, so we get to watch that again (52-second mark):
Ashley Barnes’s penalty kick goal to beat Liverpool was the Magic Moment of the Season (that or the whole game was—I was a little confused by the wording in the Burnley writeup), letting us remember the joy of that day.
The U23 Player of the Year was Lewis Richardson, the U18 Player of the Year was Jake Rooney, the Women’s Player of the Year was Nic Worthington, and the E-Sports Player of the Year was Brad Colston.
The Chariman’s Community Champion, a new award, was won by Hughie Higginson and Freddie Xaxi, the kids whose friendship made at least one Burnley blogger cry when Xaxi’s runs on behalf of his friend Hughie, who suffers from Leukemia, raised more than one hundred times his goal.
Internationals
Euro 2020 starts Friday, and I believe it’s just Matěj Vydra playing out of Burnley’s guys with Iceland and Northern Ireland not qualifying, England snubbing James Tarkowski and the other international candidates hurt and/or leaving Burnley. The Czech Republic’s first match will be on Monday the 14th against Scotland in Glasgow.
Partner Clubs
Cobh Ramblers got a big win last Friday, taking down Cork City for the first time in league play since 1995. Local rivalry. Big win. Cobh pulls within one point of eighth in the ten-team table. They play UCD (University College Dublin) tomorrow. UCD is currently second in the table, and the match is in Dublin.
Portadown lost their season finale to Ballymena on Saturday, so they’re into the offseason now, as Ayr United is.
Llandudno announced some preseason matches beginning next Saturday, so that league’s coming back to life and we’ll have scores from them soon.
