Burnley’s promotion to The Premier League is a well-deserved reward for a team who play the right way and in the right spirit, and who most importantly of all have been led there by a fantastic young manager.
Owen Coyle has become like a deity to the people of Burnley after leading them from an annual mid-table-or-below-finish in The Championship to Wembley, a 1-0 win over Sheffield United secured by Wade Elliott’s magnificent goal and The Premier League.
And not only has he done this with wisdom and determination: he has done it with an excellent team to watch, and a pretty easy one to count too. Just 23 players were fielded by the Scot in all competitions over the course of a 61-game season.
Not since they missed out on a playoff place on goal difference to Norwich City in 2002 had The Clarets finished above 13th in the second tier. Not since that season have they captured the imagination of the larger football audience either.
And after the long, long year they have had there are not too many people outside the red half of Sheffield who would deny them their ascension to the so-called promised land – a rise that plain and simply would not have come to pass without the brilliance of Coyle in the hotseat.
He has already been linked with replacing Gordon Strachan at Celtic, but the word from him is that his job at Burnley is only beginning and fans of The Premier League's newest addition will be praying that remians the case.
It seems odd now to recall that 18 months or so ago when Coyle left St Johnstone to take on the reins at Turf Moor, most Burnley fans were underwhelmed by his appointment, many wanting a bigger name or not even having heard of the once-capped Republic of Ireland international. Now he is their darling, their hero, their most loved and praised leader of men - and why not?
Burnley have impressed from the off in the season just gone – well not quite: they began their league season with two three-goal defeats and two subsequent 0-0 draws.
But it was not long before a team, to which Coyle never saw the need to make wholesale changes, had weaved their way into a playoff place and enjoyed dimming the bright lights of London in The Carling Cup
.
In that competition Fulham were seen off, Chelsea famously ousted on penalties and Arsene Wenger’s bright young Arsenal whipper-snappers reminded that they are still only scholars of the game and a long way from masters.
For three of the four halves in their two-legged semi-final meeting with Tottenham Hotspur too, Burnley were terrific. (In the end the second half of that first leg was a valuable lesson in how adrift they can be of the big boys when the big boys turn it on, but that will only stand to them).
The second leg of that tie saw them tear Tottenham apart time after time with Coyle bringing on attacker after attacker, showing no fear and coming so close to getting them a deserved place at Wembley against Manchester United, only for them to be cruelly denied with three minutes of extra-time remaining and their away goal about to come into play.
But they would be back at Wembley.
With extra games tagged on in The FA Cup including a replayed win over another Premier League side in West Brom, the wear and tear on a very small squad threatened to derail their main aim of finishing in the top six as their form dipped along the way.
But with a tight-knit squad and a firm determination, Coyle was able to guide them to a strong finish. They suffered just one defeat in their last ten regulation league games and added on home and away playoff wins over Reading and Monday’s joy at Wembley to end in style, end in glory, end the season a division better off.
All with just 23 players - using significantly less than their promotion rivals. Wolves and Birmingham went up using 31 and 34 in all competitions respectively. Burnley’s playoff rivals Reading and Sheffield United utilised 32 and 36.
Indeed, Manchester United have used 36 in winning their various hauls to date. Not that a player count is any real barometer for success. Sunderland and Hull needed 32 each on their way to underwhelming survival, Newcastle - who Burnley will not be facing in the top flight - used 29, while ‘bigger’ Championship clubs than Burnley in Southampton and Norwich suffered relegation with 32 and 33 each used.
Burnley’s model was better than theirs, a squad in which everyone was comfortable with each other and a team that – more often than not – was not messed about with by a manager who stayed true to those who relied on him and true to his own beliefs.
As already said, he has not changed the team around too much. Of the signings he has made, Martin Paterson has notched 19 goals since joining from Scunthorpe, his pace and predatory instinct leading the way for the Clarets. His goal at the Madejski Stadium in the semi-final was bettered only by what was to come two weeks later from Elliott.
Chris Eagles possibly could - maybe at that stage should - have been looking higher than Burnley when he left Old Trafford a year ago. I was surprised that a team such as Fulham or Wigan did not look at him, but he has gotten his head down, worried scores of Championship defenders from the flanks and been a real asset, one that will be of huge importance to the club when opponents get tougher in a few months’ time.
Those two aside, Kevin McDonald, Steve Thompson, Christian Kalvenes and Middlesbrough loanee Rhys Williams have all done their bit, though Coyle’s real ability in the transfer market will be tested in the months to come. It is the performances he has gotten out of the players he inherited from Steve Cotterill that were every bit as, if not more, noteworthy.
Ex-Claret Andrew Cole previously said working with Coyle influenced him and kept him playing on longer than he intended to. Maybe it is because he is still close to the character of the players.
He played on until 2007 and as seen on TV can still do it better than most in the charity games. Infectious about football and doing things the right way, Coyle has pulled together the sum of Burnley’s parts and delivered an amazing result.
The giant Brian Jensen has been much improved in goal. Clarke Carlisle has earned countless man-of-the-match awards at centre back, not least at Wembley against The Blades. And the hero of that final Elliott has added some clever link-up play to a game previously dominated by sporadic screamers like the one he got in the decider but often mirroring the team as a whole in lacking consistency. He is a player who has earned the upcoming crack at the big league.
And Robbie Blake has been quite simply sensational. At 33, he is set to get a third crack at The Premier League, having failed to shine much there in the past in top-flight flings with Bradford and Birmingham.
However, the season just gone has been the best of his career, the threat he has offered from wide areas a constant outlet for Burnley, who have used him in tandem with Eagles to get at teams from both sides.
With 90-minute resilience, flair and class he has been the pick of the Clarets' bunch this season and deserves that third top-flight crack.
And what about Graham Alexander? At 37 years of age he missed just 26 minutes of the 5,490 the team played all season, most of it in the heart of midfield after a career at full back. Alexander, along with Coyle and Blake, symbolises everything right about the attitude to the game at Burnley right now.
The Scot – as good a penalty-taker as you will find anywhere in world football – has previously lost six playoff campaigns and never played in the top flight. But retirement is not an option after he claimed his Premier prize.
But these players will not be enough for Coyle. The party will soon need clearing up and as said before he will have to wheel and deal, to adapt to the bigger league, to see what he has and see what he needs. His side will be relegation favourites from the off and he will need to prove all over again how good he is at his job.
But I think he is very good. He has to be to have done what he has done with this team. Sir Alex Ferguson, Roy Hodgson, Tony Pulis and Gianfranco Zola are all seen as manager of the year contenders, but just drop down a division and you will see Mick McCarthy, Alan Irvine, Dave Jones and Sean O’Driscoll, all of them just just pipped by Coyle.
And furthermore, he has been gracious in everything he has done. He was clearly hurting after that semi-final defeat to Spurs, but he congratulated the winners and got on with his own task. And in the past few weeks after his side's playoff wins, his first words were for Steve Coppell and Kevin Blackwell and their sides. A good manager and a good winner!
John Hartson said on Setanta’s Football Matters on Monday that he felt Coyle might just keep them up and while I will wait and see what happens in the summer before I throw any money on it, my knee-jerk gut feeling is the same. I have said this about Portsmouth, Reading and Stoke in the past and been right (and been wrong about other sides on about ten other occasions) and I hope I can add Burnley to that list.
At Stoke this year, Tony Pulis brought in the right level of experience to compliment what he had in his side and got them to play to their strengths.
And while Burnley’s strengths may be of a different nature, I think Coyle will do the same. But he has his work cut out for him, and that work started from the minute that full-time whistle went at Wembley.