So I made a friendly wager about the game, and the friendly wager requires me to shout out a good friend of the Crow right now, who also happens to be a Manchester City fan.
Devin McIlvain (out of Cammack Elementary), I don’t know how you came to be a Man City fan. Your last name implies some Scoth-Irish heritage. Was an ancestor of yours indentured in Manchester? Was that ancestor freed by a Cityzen who made said ancestor promise to never support Manchester United? Is Man City even Man U’s biggest rival?
I don’t know a lot about Manchester City (or the city of Manchester, for that matter), but I know this: Devin, you’re a good guy. Congratulations on the win today.
The Result:
Man City 2, Burnley 0
How It Happened:
Immediately. Man City scored immediately. Within three minutes, I think. Nick Pope made a rare misplay, and boom. One-nil bad guys.
From there, Burnley just didn’t get a lot going. The defense tightened up—allowed one more on (what looked to my uneducated eyes like) a nice play by the guests—but the lads never really made any moves towards scoring.
What It Means:
If current results hold (Brighton’s tied with Liverpool at the half), Burnley will fall into 17th. If Brighton loses, still in 16th. Still eight points up on the relegation zone, though.
What’s Next:
Brighton on Saturday. Big one. At Turf Moor, thankfully.
Other News:
Not a lot.
General Thoughts:
This is my first day on TikTok and it’s a weird world in there. Whole new section of The Internet™ for me.
Burnley Thoughts:
I mean, it was closer than it usually is against these guys. Hard to be upset with that. Bit nervous because Brighton seems to be playing better, but in the end, the real thing of importance is holding off Fulham/West Brom/Sheffield United.
As far as the transfer window stuff goes, there seem to be differing views among Burnley fans. Personally, feels like we should give ALK Capital some time, and feels like they wouldn’t have bought the team if they didn’t think they could compete at the EPL level (otherwise, I’m guessing it’d be a bad investment, unless they think the Championship League’s gonna grow substantially financially). Am curious if Sean Dyche is mad at all about a lack of investment, and what he thinks of things more broadly. Losing him would be damaging, I’d imagine, so basically:
- I hope Sean Dyche is happy.
- It’s possible ALK Capital’s misguided, but I think the safer bet is that they aren’t, and that they’ve got a plan for getting to a spot where they’re willing to spend and start building Burnley up towards competing annually for spots in European competition, which is the apparent next step for the club. I don’t know much about the transfer windows, but intuitively, it seems like the summer one would be busier than the January one, so maybe by then—hopefully after an FA Cup quarterfinal or semifinal run and a finish near the midpoint of the table—the resources will be there to extend Tarkowski or bring in some solid players. Obviously, though, I know so little. These are just impressions.
