Jimmy Adamson

WHAT REALLY MAKES BURNLEY TICK

What's the answer to Burnley' success? How can a club, whose financial resources must be so very limited when compared with at least a dozen other English clubs, stay at the top? What produces the Burnley team spirit? Briefly - what makes Burnley 'tick'?

Those are the sort of questions I am constantly being asked. I'd sum them all up in one word - foresight. The club is always looking ahead - planning for the future. Take the Gawthorpe Hall training ground. This was bought in the days when Alan Brown was our manager. It's been invaluable to the club. Everything that happens at Burnley is planned at Gawthorpe Hall. Now we have a new gym - 175 ft. x 90 ft. Our training facilities are as good as any in the country. Maybe the biggest factor in Burnley's success is that everyone has a specific job. He knows what he has to do, and no one is allowed to interfere.

That all starts right at the top. First of all with the chairman and directors - they look after the business side. They appointed Harry Potts as manager, and allowed him to manage exactly as he thought fit. Harry is the sole boss, responsible for everything connected with the players - team selection, tactics, transfers, new signings. Harry, in his turn, hands on responsibility. No one interferes with the trainer. Billy Dougall is in charge of the treatment room. George Bray is boss of the reserves and Joe Brown the youth team. The office staff collect and file scouts reports from all over the country. Each has a job and each is answerable only to the 'boss'. It is the same on the field - every player knows his job and gets on with it. The placing of responsibility on the shoulders of individuals has a lot to do with the success of Burnley.

Another factor is the way Burnley are able to produce a supply of their own players - which means they don't have to pay fantastic transfer fees. As soon as a youngster arrives at Turf Moor he is made to feel he is part of the Burnley Football Club. And, just as important, he knows he is not going to be tossed out after a short spell. Every young player arriving at Turf Moor is guaranteed four or five years on the staff. In that time he gets a chance to learn the game. He is not tossed out if he fails to live up to expectations in one season.

The only reason he may go is if he doesn't measure up off the field. If he wants the lad can be apprenticed to a trade. Or he usually goes on the ground staff, doing all the odd jobs around the ground. For instance, there is always one ground staff lad with the first team - looking after the kit. While Joe Brown is in charge of these youngsters the first team players help by example. Boys will always copy the senior players. An inside-forward will watch Jimmy McIlroy. Study Jimmy's positional play, his ability to find the open space, his pacing of a game. Training at Turf Moor generally takes the same pattern. The idea is to have all players thinking along similar lines. Then, if a reserve player has to be introduced to the No. 1 side, he slots into the pattern without too much effort.

Obviously as far as the younger players are concerned there is a bigger emphasis on basic skills. The first team are more concerned with tactics. We don't do a lot of talking at Turf Moor. Of course we hold team talks, but these only last five or ten minutes. They are a free-for-all with every player saying his piece. We prefer to concentrate our tactics and team work on the field.

In talks you can tell a winger to 'go or come back.' He walks away not knowing exactly what you are talking about. On the field he sees in a flash when it is best to go and pick up a short pass from his half-back or inside forward or run to receive a pass.

We like to keep our game fluid. We don't believe in sticking to the numbers on our backs. If the full-back momentarily finds himself in the role of a winger, then he gets on with it, and someone else takes over his job in the rear.

'Burnley play their football off the cuff' fluid football is the main aim. Every player is encouraged to put forward ideas. Last close season I was with the England World Cup party in Chile. Naturally I picked up lots of ideas. Same applies with Jimmy McIlroy or Alex Elder when playing for Ireland.

Three matches stand out most in my memory of my time with Burnley. When we beat Bilbao (Spain) 5-1 in a friendly match; when we won in Manchester to finally clinch the First Division Championship and the Cup Final last season at Wembley.

Last season also brought a great moment for me when I was chosen 'Player of the Year.' It's something I don't regard so much as a personal honour. Rather I feel that I was selected to represent the entire Burnley team. In the end we didn't win anything - beaten by Spurs in the FA Cup Final and pipped by Ipswich for the championship. Naturally we were disappointed but that's football. The big disappointment is that we won't be involved in any of the big European club clashes this season. But we'll be hoping to go one better in both Cup and League.

It comes to this - we have to succeed to survive in the present high-powered, competitive, football set-up. Flying has brought the world together. When you consider the England World Cup party arrived in South America 17 hours after leaving London, it's obvious football - both at international and club level - is to be a world game. Eight thousand miles to South America. A few hundred - perhaps a thosand - in Europe. It's the same travelling to London and Newcastle, a few years back.

Burnley are going to be part of this new approach to football. They'll do it by looking and planning ahead - both on the playing and administrative side. That's what makes Burnley tick. On the ball - in every respect.

From the 'Topical Times' Football Book 1962

Reproduced by Jez Wilson

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