Rumour Mill- Will Kilkenny Neil for the Clarets?

Be interesting to know why he wants to leave Leeds, can only think wages if he comes to Burnley. Still, good news that we seem to be active in the market.

Fed up Claret you say money running out? my question is where the hell is it ???? I'm missing around £40M it's a joke we haven't spent sweet f.a. all we have to show is a new pitch a couple of signings under laws all paid for by the sale of Stephen Fletcher, where is the promotion money and the two parachute payments ??

Listening to people and other forums there ain't going to be a lot spent by EH this season, and on top of that we need to ship out some of these over paid ageing stars befor we start to look at players coming in. On the other hand i could be completely wrong watch this space.

Hollins, I would have thought that key to unlocking your wish that fans both say, and ask for, more would be to present to the Board a reasonably clear and achievable Plan B. Does anyone you know have one? You have asked on other occasions where the money has gone. I am not an expert. But, are the following clues? First, promoted clubs don't get the fabled £60 million (now £90 million?) all at once. It comes over the various years until the last parachute payment is paid. Second, a lot of what money we have had so far went on promotion bonuses and new player salaries, which continue at a significant level. Third, we bought quite a few players as well as made money selling one, some of whom have done well, some considerably less so. Fourth, it's thought that firing Laws cost us a million. Fifth, we had to spend on bringing the Turf up to PL standard, then we spent more on the pitch and the all-weather training picthes. Sixth, a chunk of the money that got us promoted was in the form of a loan from Brendan Flood's companies. Why that was taken as a loan rather than an investment would have been a (complicated) group decision, and it would be wrong to assume it was necessarily what Flood wanted. Obviously, it would have been preferable if Allied Irish Banks (I think it was) had not called in their loans to Flood's companies. Perhaps they didn't need to? But it's my understanding that they did, perhaps because of thier own problems more than because of Flood's. That meant Flood lost control to receivers. They would have had no choice but to take back the money loaned to the club, with any agreed interest. So, while all of that could have gone better for the club, if Flood hadn't made the loans in the first place, we quite probably wouldn't have got promoted, and would have had to find some other way to handle the poor financial situation it's generally accepted we were in before that, which would probably have involved selling players and - who knows? - maybe even relegation, as has happened since to PNE. I would assume that the loss of that substantial loan investment is what put paid to the various stadium development plans. Meanwhile, Coyle can whitter on all he likes about 'ambition'. He does the easy bit of getting other people to pay for his. But, for those who have to sign the cheques, if banks aren't lending, if you've already mortgaged the ground, and if you haven't got cash beyond your existing spending commitments, what are you supposed to fuel that 'ambition' with? I am not saying your views are wrong. I am just trying to work out what the realistic alternatives are. I stand ready to be converted as a disciple to them. But I need to know more before I sign up.

BOYS YOUR BUYING THE RHETORIC! .... Couch that's a great response and I thank you for it, its exactly why I would like to see a debate, not to argue with each other but more a proactive point more about "discovery" of key facts. It may well be I say I stand corrected and realise the board are fantastic, but as it remains I'm far from that opinion, in fact I am absolutely opposed to it as you know,Claret dale cheers for getting involved I want to be clear, I'm not saying the board are wrong all the time they have been a safe pair of hands and I do think they want what's best they are all genuine fans to a man, but that dosn't mean I accept all that being told to us, I have a comprehensive knowledge of how they have gone about sacking and closing the leisure centre and believe me the decision making is absolutely absurd, I simply don't agree with many of those points you articulate earlier, so there are couple of points worth re looking at for all of us, driven of course in the spirit of friendship lets get the debate going ..... Can anyone on this forum confirm what revenue is projected to have come into the club in the last two years before we look at the outgoings? Would you think a guess at approx £100 million is deluded or about right? my figure is made up of the £60million promotion (could be argued that this was in fact more Blackpool received £90 million a year latter,) and two more years of £16M parachute plus Steve fletcher at £7.5 M. Am I off my head is is this about right? or is the £60M INCLUDING the two parachute payments? If so why is it called a parachute Secondly the outgoings pale into insignificance compared to this incoming amount, our signings included Fox Marney Wallace, Iwelumo et al.that was approx £3m, we laid a new pitch at £1M ok so that leaves us with plus £3.5M after Fetchers sale, lets stick a high figure in for a score board new dressing rooms and upgrades to the all whether pitches say a £1m, and I m still looking at money of some £1.5 million BEFORE we even look at the remaining promo cash. Floodies business struggles they pull the plug and the receivers notice the "promise to repay on promotion to the premier league undertaking on the directors loan" it costs around £7.5M plus further cost and interest, .. ended up around £8.5M. Fingers crossed Brendan sorts them out with his actions later this year. However I'm looking at your post above and think I remember seeing the posted losses were around £3M for the year we got promoted so lets factor this in and give away to a cool million on the removal of a former manager... HOWEVER I'm quick to point out we got compensated by Bolton for Coyle and paid nothing to attract Mr Laws, so some of this compensation will have paid towards laws and Howes entry and exit packages. So from promo monies we spend £10M, so where is the other £50Million quid or £82m if the promo monies included the parachute payments. Placing the money to one side, what kind of debarcal were the managerial appointments? laws and the pain staking appointment of Howe our 4th choice on the list. We paid a fortune in setting planning permissions for Gawthorpe and now we arnt moving forward with the plan. We spent the same efforts and finance on the development of the cricket field plan, now correctly shelved We converted the Jimmy Mac stand into offices then a year later booted out the poor old tenants that had moved into the no limits enterprise suite and re converted it again. The business school for football has failed with its first partner before it even got of the ground, ok so we have a new partner in there and its going to go ahead, but not sure what kind of revenue driver that will be given most of the Uni's are on there arse. You just cant keep making so many mistakes and not delivering and expect fans to have the same confidence in you..... can you?

I don't agree with your assumptions hollins re income. I do agree with the fact I had a great year watching the lads all over the country in the Prem something I never dreamed we would achieve in my lifetime. I thank the board, manager and players for that and accept it was a gamble to survive and we failed. Hindsight is great...we should have binned Caldwell, Jordan, Kalvenes, Jenson and Carlisle the moment we got promoted as they aren't Prem Class.....and if we had......there might just have been a public outcry by the fans without the gift of foresight.....

Bloody hell I agree with you miniVR, I also like Bernies' post as it would be what I am trying to say too. As an example Fletcher to Wolves £7.5 Million but how much did BFC get? Perhaps £5 million? Everyone takes a slice of the fee from sell on payments to agents and the tax man etc but if you want to be negative then there is a danger you will become short sighted on everything. Remco's wages for example whilst on loan, were we paying part of them? Quite possibly and its all those other costs as Bernie rightly highlights that make a balance sheet more complex than some would like to believe.

How will this, from a bbcwww story on PL finances affect Bfc? "Championship clubs are set to introduce their own financial fair play system. Football League chairman Greg Clarke says Championship clubs have voted in principle to match Uefa's break-even rules. There is also a proposal that League One clubs move towards the introduction of the salary cap currently in force in League Two, where teams can spend a maximum of 60% of their turnover on wages."

hollinsclaret , Although Jack Cork has been with us a long while and hinted at being keen to become a Burnley player , Chelsea have never said they are happy to sell and he is under contract to them , this is the time they have commented at him being available to my knowledge , Chris McCann is likely to be keeping his options open with a veiw to prem football and a bigger wage packet , loyalty in football amongst players is thin at best! Premier league players cost a lot of money and require a big fat wage packet , even those not sought after by premier league clubs!

There's more about the FL's 'financial fair play' initiatives at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13724949.stm. The times they are a'changin'?

Couch, I'am aligned with some of your thinking, just don't tell me your a BFC director in disguise will you. ..... For me despite all the current economic issues fortune favours the brave ALWAYS ! we have to have a different strategy than the other clubs, rather than the polite passive interactions we seem to be having. Anyway onwards and upwards I guess we all want the same in the end, a clarets team in the premiership, we probably all have different views on how we get their though, some more openness from the club surrounding our finances would do no harm at all, I think the stuff you have posted today makes really interesting reading, how many clubs will change their initial budgets based on this info i wonder ?