Cole rejects Burnley offer
11:49am Friday 16th May 2008
ANDREW Cole will not be returning to Turf Moor, after last night rejecting Burnley's offer of a permanent contract.
The former Manchester United and England striker, who had a successful three-month loan spell with the Clarets, spoke to manager Owen Coyle yesterday afternoon to confirm his decision.
However, despite reports suggesting David Unsworth had also turned down a one-year contract in a player-coach role, that deal is not dead.
The 34-year-old former Everton defender believes he is capable of playing for at least another two seasons and, with the offer tabled, is torn between concentrating on getting as many games under his belt as possible or laying the foundations for a future coaching career.
"I spoke to him yesterday and told him to think it through over the weekend because it is a big decision for him," said Coyle, who has put the foundations for establishing a younger squad in place by securing the signatures of 18-year-old trio Jay Rodriguez, Alex MacDonald and Adam Kay.
Rodriguez, who signed his first professional contract last summer after coming through the club's youth ranks, has put pen to paper on a new two-year deal, while MacDonald and Kay have both signed one-year contracts at the end of their apprenticeships.
But Coyle sensed it could prove more difficult to tempt Cole to stay and make a successful loan spell from Sunderland permanent, despite making what he described as a "fair offer".
"At the end of the day it was always going to be a difficult one because of the level of finance," he said.
"We obviously didn't pay his full salary when he was on loan because it was way in excess of what everyone else is on here. Obviously when he left Sunderland, we put a proposal to Andrew.
"Given that it is a fairly reduced package from what he's used to then obviously he wanted a bit of time to think it over.
"We loved working with him and I think he loved it at the football club, but he had a decision to make and he's made it, which he is within his rights to do.
"The bottom line is the deal's not been suitable to him."
While Coyle now faces a patient wait for the decision Unsworth, as well as James O'Connor - the only other player yet to accept or decline his new terms after Brian Jensen agreed earlier this week and Jon Harley was released last Friday - he has been busy making plans to bring new faces to the club.
The Clarets boss has not been given a fixed budget with which to make his first permanent signing, and more, during the summer weeks, admitted there would be room to manoeuvre, depending on the target, and revealed he hadn't ruled out smashing a club transfer record that has stood for almost eight years.
Ian Moore cost Burnley £1million in November 2000, as did Robbie Blake when he first signed in January 2002.
"I would always envisage trying to break transfer records," said Coyle.
"But the bottom line is that wouldn't be down to me, that would be down to the finance involved.
"There are players out there who, I think, would be in that bracket.
"The difficulty within it, if it was £1m, is that after paying that what their personal terms would be. So it's about what the whole package is going to cost you.
"That's where the bits and pieces of trying to be ahead of the game on the football side of it comes in, trying to know who is available and what they're available at, and what the personal terms would be, because the bottom line is there'd be no point in taking it any further if it's going to be out of the realms of possibility."
But Coyle indicated that, when he does dip into club funds, it will be to bring in younger players and build a squad that will grow and develop over the coming seasons.
"I want to get some younger legs into the team, but that will come at a cost.
"The reason I say that is that, if you look back over the years, when money has been spent I think, with all due respect to the players involved, it's been spent on players whose value, at the age they're at, there's more chance of it depreciating rather than appreciating.
"I think if we are going to spend money on players, we would hope they're a good age and can get better, and that value would be an asset as opposed to depreciating, and not ever getting the chance to recover that.
"But I have had three or four meetings with representatives, I've put a couple of offers in to clubs already, and we'll wait and see what comes back.
"What we're going to be trying to do is not build a team that would service for one season, but would service for a few years.
"It won't be possible that everyone we get is of that ilk, but we've certainly targeted some younger ones like that, who have experience of playing football at a very high level.
"What we're trying to do is build a team for years to come, not build a team then dismantle it, build a team then dismantle it.
"To have any sort of relevant success and be a winning team, then you have to have that, build it and keep it going.
"It's a very difficult task in football to have a team, dismantle it, then have another team.
"I think anybody that's had any reasonable success, it's been shown they've had time to build it and put it all together, and all the bits and pieces of the jigsaw fall into place.
"What we do know is that we don't have the parachute payments or the finances that are available to other clubs.
"But we do know that within our structure we can get good players in that can enhance the team and develop us the way we want to."
He added: "Budgets are always flexible. At the end of the day, even with regards to salary, if you don't get a player, then that money might become available for whatever reason, so there's not a hard and fast ruling that you've got £1m to spend or £10m to spend.
"I'll go and target a few players, and if I feel that if some are achievable, if we can get to it then we'll take that on.
"I'm not looking to pin anyone down to the exact amount of money available, because things change daily in a football club.
"The club lost £4m last year, so you have to understand that as well. But if we want to take it on, which we do, and further the team and the club's ambition, then we need an injection of some players into the squad that are better than what we've got, with younger legs, enthusiasm and a bit of vibrance."