lancyclaret

Good luck for the rest of the season hopefully starting with a win against Rangers this weekend. The Burnley-Aberdeen tie could have gone either way and I was dreading a penalty shoot-out. I think we would have lost one of those (we did last season). One consolation for the Dons is that you will almost certainly be in Europe again next season and we will not. I'm not confident of getting past the Turks. Edit: One thing I did NOT like was Ashley Barnes "cupping his ear" after the second goal. Absolutely no need. "Basher" is a big crowd favourite for his never-say-die 100% effort but is not the sharpest tool in the box. After drawing away in an FA Cup match, he told the interviewer he was "satisfied with a good away point".

Crouch commutes from his Surrey home (south of London) by train from Euston. Aberdeen might be a problem (commuting).

Bournemouth effectively do it by "cheating" thanks to the billions of their Russian "sugar daddy" Max Demim. When they were promoted in 2014/15, their income - on 11,000 attendances - was £10 million and their wage bill £25 million (a £15 million loss). Their "gamble" against Financial Fair Play rules paid off and they only got a small fine (slap on the wrists) after reaching the PL. They still get 11,000 attendances but pay Jermaine Defoe £130,000-a-week on a three-year deal. Wonder what the Bournemouth players who get less than £50k a week think? Burnley want every player on similar wages for team spirit purposes.

Dyche just says his usual thing....."it's difficult for a club like ours because we cannot offer the wages. we are not going to break our wages ceiling (now about £40k a week + bonuses for league position)." Only Huddersfield paid lower wages than us last season. We were 7th, they were 16th. Burnley are willing to pay £15-20 million for a player like Craig Dawson but he wants the £75k a week he earns at RELEGATED West Brom. Also, Dyche tends to sign only English/Irish/Arfield players, so his options are restricted.

Yes. It's the annual "summer holiday fortnight" in Burnley but another reason is that we are the ONLY PL club who have not signed a single new player this summer despite a mountain of cash being available. Our main target seems to be 37-year-old Peter Crouch for £500,000 to replace Sam Vokes, apparently off to Middlesbrough for £10 million. No new players + the two most skilful injured = total apathy. The fans voted with their feet yesterday - less than 4,000 for a game against a top 10 French club, Montpellier.

Burnley today drew 0-0 with top-flight French team Montpellier (10th in Ligue 1 last season). Burnley (4-4-2): Legzins: Bardsley, Long, Dunne, Taylor; Brady, Hendrick, O'Neill, Walters; Vokes, Barnes. Of the 11 who started against the Dons on Thursday, only Hendrick began against Montpellier. Vokes was the only other player who featured at Pittodrie. None of the other 10 Pittodrie starters played today. Brady, coming back after 8 months out with a cruciate, limped off after 41 minutes with a hamstring injury. Barnes, recovered after a bad case of blistered feet, played 60 minutes and should be on the bench next Thursday if he doesn't start.

Burnley sold Michael Keane for £30 million to Everton last summer and the Toffees fans think Burnley have robbed them blind. Keane's poor form is down to not having Ben Mee covering his mistakes and rescuing situations. Same with Tarkowski - only reason Tarks is now an England international is because of Mee, Most Burnley fans would put Mee ahead of Tarkowski and Keane.

Sean Dyche was a decent uncompromising centre-half at lower Championship/higher League One level so should be a good judge. He started off at Forest under Brian Clough but never broke into the first team when Forest were still a top side with the likes of Des Walker and Stuart Pearce. It will be interesting if he shows any interest in McKenna after the two ties. Dyche must be aware of the Swansea interest.

If McKenna plays well again in the second leg, if Dyche rates him I would not be surprised if he put in a bid (as "one for the future" and the main back-up to Mee & Tarkowski). At the moment, Dyche wants either Craig Dawson (WBA but unused sub against Aberdeen) or Alfie Mawson (Swansea). Both are rated at £20 million by their clubs). Burnley are too tight-fisted to pay that so Dyche may go for a younger CH - "one for the future".

I think Dyche will play it cautiously inviting Aberdeen to attack while hoping to grab a goal on the counter. The longer Burnley do not concede, the more risks Aberdeen will have to take - weve won a fair few home matches 1-0 with late goals during Dyche's reign. As for the league season, I expect a lower-placed finish but hope we'll stay well clear of the bottom three. As for cups, we're generally rubbish or get a "killer" early draw. This season, for instance, in the FA Cup we got Man City away first up (lost 4-1 after leading 1-0 until the 65th minute). But our high finish last season means we are exempt until the last 32 of the League Cup this year - so if we get a favourable draw we could progress quite far in that. I'll be satisfied (but not pleased) with a 17th-placed finish but we should be a few places higher.

Nice of you to think so but I doubt we would win the Scottish PL - the reason being Burnley rarely play well when we are favourites and expected to win. The underdog mentality suits us. Even when we were 4th/5th last year, nearly every match the bookies had the opposition as favourites. Against a team like West Ham or, say, Southampton....they could be in the bottom three but the bookies would still have them to beat us. The bookies, experts, pundits whatever just look at the players' names and reputations in the respective squads. I am not counting any chickens but if we DO manage to make the next round, we will be underdogs against the Turks - they have Turan, Adebayor, Clichy, Inler etc - so the bookies will have the Istanbul-ers as favourites. That is when I would expect Burnley to put in a GOOD performance doing themselves justice. We may, or may not, scrape through next Thursday but I doubt we will play particularly well.

Wood is ungainly and not blessed with fancy footwork, but 10 goals in 24 Premier League matches last season (one every 161 minutes)....very good scoring rate not that far behind Salah and Kane. I know it's a lower division but the previous season Wood bagged 30 goals in 48 matches for Leeds United.

I agree. I have read several posts saying "Aberdeen will be stronger and fitter for the second leg" but seemingly not taking into account so will Burnley. McInnes himself said "we'll be fitter and stronger" but did not mention Burnley. The Dons started pre-season a couple of weeks earlier but the Clarets will just about have caught up by this Thursday in terms of meaningful friendly matches and minutes played by the squad. I think you've got a game against Arbroath tomorrow while we play our first "home" pre-season match against Montpellier (10th in the French top division last season and not far off qualifying for Europe themselves). We'll have our work cut out to win because I think Dyche will "rest" a couple who are carrying minor knocks after Thursday's tough match. I doubt whether we'll be much-changed in the return but it will be a shame for us (and Dons fans but not the team) that the skill of Steven Defour & Robbie Brady will NOT be on view next Thursday. We certainly lacked creativity but Westwood is only 50% of the player Defour. However, the return of our best striker Ashley "Basher" Barnes and his 110% commitment would certainly improve our chances. I hope he can at least make the bench. Our league season does not start until August 12, so it might be a very slight advantage to us that you are hosting Rangers less than 72 hours after the second leg.

You might alter your opinion if you saw us at full strength with our two most skilful midfielders Steven Defour & Robbie Brady available. With those two, our away results against the Premier League "Top Five" last season were: Chelsea 2 Burnley 3 Spurs 1 Burnley 1 Liverpool 1 Burnley 1 Man City 3 Burnley 0 Man Utd 2 Burnley 2 Don't think Celtic would "smash" us at Parkhead - with a full-strength team I'd back us to get a draw. It was a long time ago but our last two results against Celtic in the Anglo-Scottish Cup were: Burnley 1 Celtic 0; Celtic 1 Burnley 2 (agg: 1-3). Celtic took 10,000 to the infamous "Battle of Turf Moor" in 1978, ripping up metal railings and using them as spears. Several police (and police dogs) were injured. More recently, Burnley have played Rangers twice at Ibrox, winning 1-0 and 3-1 with an Andre Gray hat-trick. I hope the Dons fans will see a much-improved Burnley - the Burnley of last season - in the return next week, but Defour & Brady will still be missing. If we get Ashley Barnes back it will be good - he is stronger and better than Wood and Vokes. Wood was rubbish yesterday - don't know what was wrong with him although your 2 CHs played very well. Wood never looks like he contributes much unless he scores. In an injury-hit season last year, he hit 10 league goals in only 24 matches - with one goal every 161 minutes (a rate right up with some of the best strikers in the PL).

Mr Campbell is not very popular with most Burnley fans - in fact quite often he is an embarrassment to the club. I bet he doesn't even pay to get in.

Stick a "tenner" on it - you'll get great odds on that prediction.

Maybe 60/40 in Burnley's favour now - Aberdeen have to score at least one goal next Thursday. Our chances will be improved massively if Ashley Barnes is fit - he is more robust and physical than Vokes or Wood - and was our best striker last season. I think Dyche will play it tight and invite Aberdeen to attack, then hoping to hit Dons on the counter but knowing a goalless draw will be enough to go through. My prediction: Burnley 1 Aberdeen 0 (agg: 2-1) or Burnley 1 Aberdeen 1 (Aberdeen win 4-3 on pens).

"Similar level of arrogance"? Dyche and his players visited Pittodrie (pitch and changing rooms) this morning. Did not go last night because of the plane's late arrival and they had not eaten.

Burnley know all about Niasse...played against us a few times both for Hull and Everton. Either very good or very bad - nothing in between.

I'm not sure Burnley were planning to visit Pittodrie anyway...they had a training session at Burnley this morning. Knowing Burnley's tight-fistedness, the plane was probably a 1950s De Haviland Comet.

Fairly certain Defour and Brady won't play.....Wood might be on the bench.

I know it's a sad state of affairs but just look at the clubs who "cheat" Financial Fair Play to get into the Premier League (Leicester, QPR and Bournemouth "cheated" and got away with it but lots of others have gambled and failed - Villa, Forest, Leeds, Blackburn etc). Ask any PL owner (Burnley included) and they will say the league comes before any cup competition (except perhaps winning the Champions League). Mike Garlick is the Burnley chairman and he will settle for 17th place out of 20 every season. Anything above that is a bonus. Sad but true. As an aside, I know Aberdeen play Rangers in the first league game. Which would be better for most fans? Beating Rangers or advancing in the Europa League?

Not wanting to make any excuses but I think quite a lot of Burnley fans, including me, would not be particularly bothered if we lose this tie. When the draw was made, I was hoping for a long run in Europe but since June 20 (5 weeks) we have signed absolutely no-one and there are gaping holes in the squad - only 3 central defenders. The English deadline is on Aug 9, so I dread to think what the squad will look like if there are NO incomings. Premier League survival (17th place and above) is paramount for the £100 million plus it brings, so an early exit may suit Dyche and a lot of fans. I think the senior players want a run at it but, even if we beat Aberdeen, I doubt Dyche would risk sending a strong team to Istanbul on August 9 - just THREE days before the first PL game at Southampton. Win over the Dons OR win at Southampton? For me, the 3 points at Southampton are more important towards the 40 needed for PL survival. Don't get me wrong....there are a fair few Clarets fans who would take relegation if it meant a decent glamour run in Europe, but the cynics like me realise reaching the group stages would be harmful to our league chances. You can approach the tie differently because you know that you are unlikely to finish lower than 4th/5th.

Apparently McInnes was watching Burnley's 3-2 friendly win at Preston on Monday night with Moult getting the last 25 minutes as a sub.

Burnley won 3-2 at Championship side Preston tonight with the likely starting XI against Aberdeen all playing the first 55 minutes. It was then 1-1 with Aaron Lennon scoring the equaliser. Burnley put on 11 reserves in the 55th minute against a Preston side which drew 2-2 with West Ham on Saturday. Burnley's starting XI: (4-4-1-1): Heaton; Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Ward; Lennon, Cork, Westwood, Gudmundsson; Hendrick; Vokes. Defour (calf) definitely misses Thursday and so too almost certainly Brady, who is being eased back after a bad knee injury. Strikers Wood (hamstring) and Barnes (knee) both have minor injuries and will more likely be on the bench on Thursday (if they are risked at all). So, apart from keeper Pope, I would say we could be without 4 who could be classed as first-choice last season (Defour, Brady, Wood, Barnes). I certainly hope Barnes will be back for the 2nd leg - his physicality terrorised a lot of centre-halves last season.