Burnley’s visit gives us another chance to look at three players who have represented both clubs, and there is plenty of contrast in this week’s selection.
We have a title winner, a player-manager associated with one of our darkest afternoons, and a winger whose two loan spells offered rather more promise than the eventual return.
As ever, the categories reflect their time in red and white, with a bit of room for interpretation. You might remember them differently, which is half the point!
The Good: Jason Shackell
I would have loved to have picked Dean West here, or Tendayi Darikwa, or even Lukas Jensen, but they were perhaps too obvious. Instead, let’s have a 2018/19 title winner.
Jason Shackell was quite a signing for a League Two club in the summer of 2018. He arrived with more than 400 senior appearances behind him, including three seasons at Burnley, where he captained the side and helped them into the Premier League in 2014. His 128 league appearances for the Clarets brought four goals, and he had already been named in the Championship PFA Team of the Year. We were getting a defender with a serious pedigree.
Thankfully, there was still plenty left in the tank. Shackell brought organisation, aerial strength and a calmness that helped underpin our League Two title win, earning another PFA Team of the Year selection along the way. He also supplied goals, including that free kick against Morecambe, when a centre-half suddenly decided he was the most qualified man on the pitch to bend one into the net. It was a lovely addition to a season in which his main job was keeping them out at the other end.
The ending was less pleasant, with the 4-3 defeat at Accrington proving to be his final appearance for us. Michael Appleton’s criticism of the senior players after that game left little doubt about his frustration, and Shackell never featured again. Still, 69 appearances, seven goals and a league title make a convincing case for this category.
He’s currently head coach of MLS Next outfit Austin FC II.
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