'I walked out in tears': Ex-Birmingham City & Newcastle United defender reflects on five-year Burnley spell

The Canadian international made the move to Turf Moor in 2009 after leaving Newcastle United following their relegation to the Championship.

The defender went on to make 114 appearances for the Clarets, playing under Owen Coyle, Brian Laws, Eddie Howe and lastly Sean Dyche, winning promotion to the Premier League under the latter in 2014.

Despite the success he enjoyed with the club, it wasn’t always plain-sailing for Edgar.

“I got to Burnley and said ‘okay, where’s the training ground?’, we pulled into the stadium, got changed there and we’d drive to a field. Yeah, I didn’t think this one through…,” he told the Undr The Cosh podcast.

“When I look back now, I had zero guidance. That’s not about my Dad or anything, I was just here by myself. I was 21 years old and I had a s**t agent. You don’t know the real world.

“I’m glad I did it though, it was an experience and one of the best five years of my life. It turned out that way.”

Edgar’s most memorable campaign at Turf Moor came in his final season, where he left the club following their automatic promotion to the top flight.

“I was in and out of the team but under Dyche we were flying. There was no in, if you were there you’d play a role,” he added.

“He played the same starting XI for x amount of games and we were flying. If you come on, you do a job or you’re not getting back in.

“Whether I was right-back, left-back or centre-half, even central midfield with him, I’d do a role.

“It was the best season ever with promotion. We were flying, the town was buzzing, everything was going well.

“If you were playing regularly or not, you felt part of something. You felt part of a club and a team. It was a group of lads I loved.”

Unfortunately the season ended in bittersweet fashion, with Edgar’s five-year stay with the club coming to an end at the expiration of his contract.

“Looking back now the signs were there,” he said.

“Perhaps I had some hope I might get one (a new contract), if we didn’t get promoted I might have got one, but Dychey pulled me in and told me I was too good of a player not to be playing week in, week out and he couldn’t guarantee me that in the Premier League.

“I was naive to these things because I had always had a contract. Previously it sorted itself out, so this was the first time I felt like ‘what do I do now?’

“I walked out of Burney in tears with a bin bag over my shoulder and that was it. I went to the pub and the summer was a debacle.

“The season ended, we had the end-of-season awards’ night, I was released the next day, an all-dayer with Trips (Kieran Trippier), straight to the airport to go to Marbella for a promotion party and then the lads met me out there for a bachelor party for another few days, and then at the end of it I flew out to get married in Jamaica.

“I had a one-year-old at the time, I had no club, I was at the resort in Jamaica texting my agent and I ended up at Birmingham. It’s a big club but I think I hit the panic button a little bit.”