Former Burnley boss Steve Cotterill hoping for a return to management when football resumes

Former Clarets boss Steve Cotterill is looking forward to a return to football once the current situation eases.
Steve Cotterill and Sean DycheSteve Cotterill and Sean Dyche
Steve Cotterill and Sean Dyche

And if he is handed the reins at a new club, he hopes he has a chairman in the vein of Barry Kilby.

Cotterill has been out of the game since leaving Birmingham City in March 2018.

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Looking back on his tenure at Turf Moor, from the summer of 2004 to late 2007, Cotterill admits he couldn't have asked for a better relationship with then Burnley chairman Kilby.

Fighting fit after rupturing a disc in his neck last year, Cotterill is waiting for the right opportunity: "There's been a couple of scenarios where I had a couple of interviews for Championship jobs, got down to the last two or three, didn't get them - okay, no problem.

"The lads who got the jobs have gone on and done well, so good luck to them.

"Last season I was sat waiting on a takeover, where I probably wasted a lot of time not applying for jobs, and the takeover went on six or seven months.

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"It's been kind of messed up for two seasons now, but hopefully that will come in time, I want to make sure it's a good club, a good solid owner - a Barry Kilby Mark Two would be fantastic!

"I'm really looking forward to it, I've missed it. I go to a game every weekend, in the midweek as well, two or three games a week - I'm as current as I need to be if I was going back into a job tomorrow."

Cotterill was given such an opportunity by Kilby 16 years ago, after the decision was taken not to extend Stan Ternent's contract after six years in charge.

They were big shoes to fill, but Cotterill quickly won the trust of his chairman, with some astute transfer dealings, building up a squad that consisted of only eight contracted players when he arrived.

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Cotterill looked back: "When you follow a manager who has been at a club a long time, it's always difficult for the incoming manager.

"At that time, it was just after the money started drifting out after ITV Digital, so they'd had a bit of a spend up a couple of years before.

"I remember going in, and we had nothing, we were trying to scrape together money every week.

"To be fair to the fans, I thought they were brilliant from day one with me, we really did have nothing, we went through the first season, and our budget was something like £2.4m.

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"I think it ended up being about £3.7m when I left nearly four years later.

"We never had money. I remember at the interview, I asked Barry about the squad. I walked through the door and there were only eight players.

"There was an average age, and they were well over their 30s."

But Cotterill was eager to keep hold of a couple of crown jewels, in the talismanic Robbie Blake, and teenage talent Richard Chaplow: "I remember saying to Barry what we hadn't to do, we hadn't to sell Robbie Blake, and we hadn't to sell Richard Chaplow.

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"He said we wouldn't have to do that, and six months later both were gone!

"He didn't want to do that, but at the time we were getting good offers for Richard, and cheeky offers for Robbie.

"I remember saying to Barry, if we had to sell Richard Chaplow, we get as much money as we can.

"We didn't want to sell Robbie, I think he'd scored about 13 goals by Christmas, Wigan made about three bids, and I said to Barry I thought we could get more than the £550,000, which I think was Wigan's last offer.

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"I said to Barry 'trust me on this, there's a lack of strikers out there, I'm sure we can get more', and we sold Robbie to Birmingham for about £1.25m.

"I think, from going through that first transfer window - and we had many a transfer window like that, many a sleepless night - I think I gained Barry's trust, where we got good money for Richard, and very good money for Robbie.

"We ended up with about £2.75m going up to £3m on those two deals."

With that money, Cotterill managed to prise Ade Akinbiyi away from Stoke City, and he proved a big success, scoring 18 goals in 43 games before a big move to Sheffield United in January 2006: "I said we'll go and spend a little bit, and we bought Ade Akinbiyi from Stoke, to replace Robbie - a completely different player, but finance dictated.

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"We paid off the two loans, but bought Ade for about £400,000.

"All transfers are hard work, but we were quite persistent with Ade, we managed to get him out of Stoke for a good deal, and we ended up selling him to Sheffield United for about £1.8m 18 months later.

"Then we spent £600,00 on Andy Gray, and he was sold for £2m just after I left.

"So I think getting trust off the chairman was important, and Barry trusted me.

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"My relationship with Barry was incredible really, he would have trusted me with his last pound coin, and I loved that, it made me want to make sure I did deals to look after the club's money, which he appreciated.

"He knew that, and I think the fans did as well."

Burnley finished 13th in the Championship in his first season at the helm, beating Premier League Aston Villa in the League Cup and Liverpool - who went on to win the Champions League that season - in a famous FA Cup shock.

The Clarets finished 17th the season after, and after starting 2006/07 well - with Cotterill Championship Manager of the Month for October - a club record 19 games without a win saw the side finish 15th.

He left the club in November 2007 after one win in 10, but Cotterill mused: "The fans were always incredibly supportive of me, a couple of times I've been back, to commentate against QPR when they got promoted, and that was brilliant, walking back up the Longside, and people clapping, that meant a lot to me.

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"And when I was with Bristol City, I know we got beat 4-0 on the day, but we were actually very good!

"But they were great people during my time there and it was great to see them again. Some have passed, Arthur Bellamy - a brilliant touch with the media building.

"I remember seeing Barry after the QPR game and him thanking me, saying to me 'you helped start all of this', and I liked that, it means it won't be forgotten up there.

"Burnley means a lot to me, I look for their result every time they play, if they're on the TV, I'll always watch them, I have fond memories - great people, we had great staff at the time."

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Cotterill is thrilled to see the club now prospering in the Premier League, and he is a big admirer of what Sean Dyche has built on and off the pitch, including a state of the art training facility at Gawthorpe: "I've not been there since it's finished, but there was a lot of building work going on when I'd gone up there and trained a couple of times with Bristol City.

"I know where the plans where and what was going to happen, that's credit to the board, Sean, his team, for doing what they've done over the last few years.

"It can be done, but you need to stick with your manager if you have belief and faith in him.

"I think Burnley have always been pretty good like that, more than pretty good, very good.

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"That's the way it works, if you get someone, they are going to have hard times, but if you stick with them, Sean has been through a couple of rocky spells, but there's no doubt they will finish off the season strongly whenever that reconvenes, and it's brilliant to see where they are.

"I love it, I wouldn't begrudge being a manager there who had very little, to now having everything they've worked for.

"I'm a small part of the history, and when Barry said to me 'you helped start all this', maybe he isn't the only one who thinks that.

"To be a small part in it is great, but obviously all the credit is down to other people."