Burnley's new boss

Owen Coyle’s decision to turn down the chance to manage his childhood club Celtic, and quadruple his Burnley salary, before accepting the top job at struggling Bolton six months later provides nothing less than a damning reflection on the state of Scottish football. But I’m not going to dwell on that.

As Clarets fans continue to spit vile towards south Lancashire, their chairman, Barry Kilby, has reportedly drawn up a four-man candidate list for the Turf Moor post. Eyebrows have been raised; those names might not look like a statement of intent. It makes fascinating reading.

Leading the pack is Brian Laws, who started his playing career with Burnley back in 1979, and left Sheffield Wednesday by mutual consent a month ago. He began his managerial career at Grimsby, and nine years at Scunthorpe included two promotions.

Next up is Sean O’Driscoll, who ended 23 years as a player, coach and then manager at Bournemouth with a move to Doncaster in 2006. The 2007 Football League Trophy and promotion to the Championship during his first full season in charge followed. Expansive football on a low budget can’t be far off the perfect fit for Burnley.

Leeds United manager Simon Grayson’s stock has risen since he masterminded the famous FA Cup Third Round defeat of Manchester United, but he takes his place on Kilby’s shortlist thanks also to guiding Blackpool to League 1 promotion in 2007 in his first manager’s job.

Lee Clark, who has taken his Huddersfield side into the League 1 playoff positions since he arrived at the Galpharm Stadium in December 2008, is also in with a shout. The gritty former Fulham midfielder was previously first team coach and reserve manager at Newcastle, and Glenn Roeder’s assistant at Norwich.


Just last week, the former executive director of the FA, David Davies, presented a 90-minute show on 5 Live entitled ‘A Lost Generation of English managers.’ Terry Venables and Tony Adams joined him to consider primarily the absence of English names in the ‘Big Four’ hotseats and a shortage of home-grown candidates for the England job when Fabio Capello steps aside.

If it was up-and-coming English managers they were after, they were looking in the wrong place. Why should England international players make great managers? The demands of the jobs are completely divergent.

Tony Adams was a suitable choice as guest. The former England skipper was given the Wycombe job in November 2003, resigning after relegation a year later. Yet when Harry Redknapp walked out on Portsmouth in October 2008, Adams was handed the reins of a Premier League club. 10 points from 16 games told its own story, Adams gone and Joe Hart to the rescue to keep them in the division. The failure of another former England captain, Alan Shearer, to keep Newcastle up showed that even the weight of a Geordie army is not enough to turn a novice into a managerial genius. But Barry Kilby is not Mike Ashley, none of it’s for show.

Burnley’s shortlist is hugely refreshing, prioritising as it does managerial success over a name. All four candidates have built strong CVs that are management – rather than playing-days heavy, making the most of their chances, not being afraid to drop down the divisions to learn their trade. Coyle of course was a virtual unknown when he was given the Burnley job in 2007, ironically recommended to Burnley by Bolton chairman Phil Gartside after successful spells up in Scotland with Airdrie, Falkirk and St Johnstone.

The four contenders all had solid yet unspectacular playing careers. Sean O’Driscoll is the oldest at 52; Clark is just 37, Grayson 40. Although he was capped for the Republic of Ireland, O’Driscoll was English-born. The others are all English. While Grayson at Leeds – who will always be news, whatever division they’re in, Laws at Wednesday and Clark as a top-level professional in the Premiership era have experience in dealing with media scrutiny, O’Driscoll, a reserved man, is less accustomed to the spotlight. An increasingly significant part of the job, this is the one area where the former big-name player has the edge.

O’Driscoll provides further interest as another to graduate from the Brian Clough school, of which Martin O’Neill is the chief alumnus. O’Driscoll played under Clough – who actively acknowledged the influence of his own teacher, Sunderland boss Alan Brown in his autobiography – at Forest between 1988 and 1993. The Sir Alex Ferguson apprenticeship has provided a great number of young managers in recent years. Bryan Robson and more recently Paul Ince and Mark Hughes have shown promise but not had things all their own way, but Alex McLeish has come into his own at Birmingham and Sunderland boss Steve Bruce remains a top English prospect. Another Englishman with a bright future is Steve Clarke, a top-tier professional but far from a star. The former Chelsea man, heralded for his defensive organisation in particular, is Gianfranco Zola’s assistant at West Ham.

Pep Guardiola’s spectacular success with Barcelona must be the exception to the rule that it doesn’t require a great player to make a great manager. If only more followed Burnley’s example and recognised hard, and successful, graft as the key ingredient. But who will Kilby give a shot at the big-time to?