Burnley News 24/7Writer: turfmanphil 
Date:Sunday April 18 2010
Time: 5:47PM
UK time is: 10:48:39
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Rumour Mill-Craig Dawson interests Laws!
Burnley gaffer Brian Laws and Middlesbrough scout Gordon McQueen were at Spotland last Tuesday night watching the League 2 game between Rochdale and Darlington. According to the Mirror it is understood they were both checking on Rochdale's 19-year-old centre half, Craig Dawson.
Although Rochdale surprisingly lost that match 1-0 to the already relegated bottom club they yesterday confirmed their promotion to League 1 after beating Northampton 1-0 at home.
After a spell on Manchester City's books as a youth player, the locally born Rochdale lad started his career with Unibond League side Radcliffe Borough after signing for them in the middle of the 2007-08 season.
He signed for Rochdale in March 2009 although for a time played on loan for his former club before eventually making his debut for Rochdale away to Port Vale in August 2009. Dawson has therefore in his first season helped Rochdale secure their first promotion since 1969!
Rochdale seem resigned to selling the player
Dale manager Keith Hill said:
"We will have to sell again this summer - I won`t stand in Craig Dawson`s way as long as we get the money we expect for him."
It is understood though that Rochdale would not be willing to let their young starlet go for less than £1 million.
Clarets fans would probably be surprised if the rumour of our interest is true. Although some of our back four players may well leave the club, especially if we are relegated we do also have players like David Edgar and Kevin Long in the squad and it would be difficult to imagine that the club would let all of our other more experienced central defenders go like Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell and even Andre Bikey. Do we really need to strengthen even more in this area
It would also be questionable whether a player effectively at League 2 level could make the jump to the Championship assuming we are relegated and surely we need to set our sights higher if we seriously want to try and achieve promotion back to the top flight.
It is rather worrying that already we appear to be looking at lower leagues and I just hope the accountants report from 'Dolittle & Spendnowt' extoling the virtues of how good Brian Laws is at bringing in players on a lower budget is not already dictating the amount of money that Laws will have at his disposal from the parachute payments.
Come on let's show some proper ambition, let's mean business and get the players in we know can do a job not just at Championship level but also with potential to play in the Premier League.
Can we seriously believe a player in League 2 could be expected to make the grade in the top flight in a season?
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Your Comments
£1 million for an unproven League 2 defender? Move on we can do better
turfmanphil
Interesting one - Not seen the lad play ( that I can remember), but wouldnt imagine he would be a starter next year. However, PNE signed Nuge from League 2 for 100K and were selling him with 2-3 years for £6m - That wouldnt be bad. Tend to agree with you though TMP, unless this lad is a real cut above, not sure he is the way to go.
Claretdale
A million pounds they are having a laugh.
Grimsby Claret
Money will still be tight next season despite the optimism of some. Spending money on the future again will be folly. We did that this season and it got us nowhere. (Edgar, Easton, Eckersley, Guerrero etc) We need all the money spent now on players that can instantly do a job at Championship level
turfmanphil
that's a lot of your parachute money to splash out guys!
merlin
Knowing how tight fisted our bloody Board is our gaffer will probably only get £1 million and the rest will disappear into a black hole! He might be allowed to keep the money we get from selling our best assets if he's lucky! We will hear it all again as we struggle in midtable 'We are a small club,punching above our weight and we cant afford to go into Administration' Time to hear a new record from the club! I hope Blackpool go up, bet they show some ambition and positivity
turfmanphil
I don't see the problem with Laws looking at highly rated players in the lower divisions. Better than ignoring them and having other clubs capitalise. You are very selective in the players you choose as examples of our transfer policy apparently not working Phil. Why not Eagles, Fletcher, Paterson and McDonald who would all be sold for more than we paid for them. Yes, how tight-fisted Mr Flood was to provide the cash needed not only to keep us in business but to effectively fund a promotion campaign. While you might have lost all perspective in the recent weeks of our season Phil I personally think Kilby and Flood deserve a little more respect for what they have done for this club.
Your last post is bizarre, you are quoting the club with your own speculative comments. And your rant is based on an article which is purely speculation anyway. Time to hear a new record from yourself per chance?
cubanclaret
We who think we have done the right thing in not spending up big will never agree with you tmp and vice versa but I think it's idiotic to criticise Laws for looking at prospects from the lower leagues, or from anywhere else come to that. Nearly every top player started at a small club and the best time to get them is when they are young and relatively unknown. As for Blackpool showing 'ambition and positivity' - they are still playing at one of the crappiest grounds in England after their 'money bags saviour' sent them broke and went to jail. Give me our 'bloody Board' any day.
ozjean
Guys don't you think we need to strengthen the midfield before we look at any other part of the team. After watching the Clarets play at Sundreland we need a major overhaul which is going to cost more than £1 mill, and the big question is who will be the manager in the championship.
Fedupclaret
Too true FedUp and let's remember who was responsible for bringing Brian Laws to the club and the reason they gave. Kilby will not last forever and I think it will be good to eventually see some new faces, fresh ideas and fresh impetus at the club. Then we can really begin to compare notes
turfmanphil
Can we afford the time to go shopping for a new manger before we start shopping for new players? What would the impact be on the dozen who are out of contract (and on those who aren't) if uncertainty is extended? Keep playing to stay up, but as soon as it's mathematically impossible, release those that Manager, Board and Brains Trust don't want and offer the others new contracts. Who plays in midfield for Rochdale? Can they tackle?
Couch Potato
Away in a manger? I would rather Laws stayed until Christmas at least with his own team in place..Then we can truly judge him although I have to say the omens are not good considering he only has a win rate of about 35% at lower league level and hardly did great things at Shef Wed on this wonderfully low budget he had to work with. If the Board are thinking of changing the manager already, I am sure they will have already done the groundwork and could be ready to announce a new manager at the end of the season. I think they will stick with Laws though
turfmanphil
I have to disagree, give laws till christmas he will have spent whatever money is available then once he's sacked a new manager has to come in and has to work with another managers players who will be on at least 2 year contracts, it dosent sound good to me.
Fedupclaret
It's not good either way to be honest. If a new manager comes in, the appointment will have to be made quickly otherwise we could miss out on available players. If we stick with Laws,it could be risky but at least the Coyle factor will have been flushed out and he will have players coming in loyal to him
turfmanphil
In the cold light of day I think I agree that I'd keep Laws at least until October. If we are doing badly in the Championship then get rid of him then (like Cotterill) to give a new manager time to assess before the January transfer window. As Bruce said on Saturday, anyone managing Burnley would find it very difficult in the best league in the world and he thought we did really well to be promoted in the first place. He also said that Coyle hadn't won many either (after the good start) so you can't lay it all on Laws. The only thing is that Laws doesn't inspire me at all but he probably deserves a bit more of a chance so see what he can do without the Premier League pressure.
We can now use our lack of debt to get in better players although it's still a gamble no matter what you spend. I see that Hull shelled out a total of 14 million for Bullard and they will still go down. We need to hope that Laws has as keen an eye for a player as Cotterill had as I suspect quite a few of the players will leave for various reasons as they always do these days.
ozjean
Bullard was signed in January 2009 for £5 million I think and to be fair to Hull he picked up an injury on his debut that would keep him out for the rest of the 2008-9 season with cruciate. He returned in October 2009. He also picked up another injury last December that kept him sidelined for about six weeks. So that investment didn't pay off due to injury and it may have done had he played in all their games. I assume if they go down Bullard will then be sold on at a profit
turfmanphil
Bullard is also rumoured to be getting paid £40K a week.
Claretdale
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