Burnley players playing for their futures amid inevitable transfer interest
Mike Jackson admits a number of Burnley players will be playing for their own futures during the final three games of the season.
With relegation already confirmed, the likelihood is a number of players will be leaving the club over the summer before next season’s campaign in the Championship.
A number of Clarets have already been linked with moves away, with Maxime Esteve especially drawing column inches this past week in particular, with Everton and Bayer Leverkusen both linked.
While Burnley have nothing left to play for this season, Jackson still expects his players to give absolutely everything for the final three games, starting with Aston Villa on Sunday.
“I totally agree,” he said, when asked if his players are playing for their futures.
“I think people always look at you as a player. If you're going to stay with a player, if you're going to sign a player, if you're going to sign players from here or players who are going to leave, people will be looking thinking: ‘what do you do when there's adversity, when there's things that go against you? Do you change?’
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“It's easy to do it when everything's going well, but how do you do it and respond in these moments? I judge players and people in them sort of things as well because, like I said, it's easier when everything's going good, but what do you do now? How do you react? How do you respond as a person, as a player, as a teammate? And then how do you stick together?”
While Jackson wants to see his team show plenty of character, he admits some can often respond in different ways.
“I think it affects different players in different ways,” he added.
“They're all different personalities. You'll have some which will respond really well. You'll have some that are just rock steady and they just know what they need to do and you have others that it takes its toll on them and they find it more difficult to get going.
“So, for me, to be in those three brackets, I have to try and keep them there and try and pull the other ones towards who might be thinking: ‘oh God’, so that's been my role this week as well.”
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