Cullen has been on fire for the past few weeks, he's captaining Burnley. Absolute wonder strike against Chelsea just now to tie it up. Burnley down a man.
Irish lads keeping them in it. Dara O'Shea makes it 2-2
two very nice goals has to be said!
"Not a bad day for Irish players in the Premier"...until Séamus Coleman scores an own goal in injury time to cost Everton a point against Bournemouth.
Oh well. Can't win em all.
Coleman just looked like an old man that time had caught up with at the end of the game there. I presume this will be it for him in the Premier League whether Everton stay up or not.
Great to see Cullen going well though, it's a real shame that he didn't hit the ground running in the Premier League. I don't think a strong run in will be enough to get him a move in the summer, assuming Burnley do go down he probably will too. O'Shea might have a chance of another move though.
Burnley have put a couple of decent results together - I wouldn't rule them out yet.
I do think Luton are likely to run out of steam, Sheff Utd look like they are down and Forest are very shaky at the moment. Everton should have enough to survive but Dyche is making very hard work of it - and Brentford are far from safe. But if Burnley keep picking up a few points they might scramble out of it - the points total for the survivor this season could be the lowest yet. WBA survived on 34 points twenty years ago - 30 points, or even less might do it this year.
I think it is pretty much guaranteed that this is Coleman's last season in the PL - he will go into coaching, but wouldn't be surprised to see him somewhere like Wigan, Preston, Bolton, Tranmere or even Blackburn or Blackpool. Can't see him packing up his family until he stops playing.Originally Posted by Eirambler
I do think O’Shea didn’t do him any favours by playing him that much across the international window, considering how little he had played in the month prior…
The John/Dara O'Shea thing wasn't annoying until now. I keep double-taking mid-sentence as I realise I've read O'Shea as the wrong one. For this reason alone, John O'Shea must not get the Ireland mangager gig permanently.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Missed the Sunderland game due to injury and, according to Scott Parker, might now miss the upcoming international matches.
https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport...defeat-4755665. “Josh will be touch and go for Saturday. Hopefully, if he comes out of the weekend, it’s only a slight issue so hopefully he can make Saturday. If not, he will be ready for after the international break.
“If he doesn’t play on Saturday he won’t be ready for Ireland.”
Last edited by Trequartista20; 25/08/2024 at 11:01 AM.
High praise from Scott Parker. Shades of the commentary around Seamus Coleman
“He's been top the last two, three games. He's been a driving force; he brings a calmness to this team. There's honestly not enough words that I can compliment Josh Cullen – from the fellow I see off the pitch to the one I see on it; he’s, one, just a very good human being, and professionally wise, his abilities, quality – I've seen a very good version of Josh over the last two games, a real driving force for us.”
https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport...parker-4897890
Nice words from Parker. But will the bon homie extend to next season when Burnley will likely be in the Premiership? I doubt Cullen will survive there. He clearly struggled at the higher level and spent much of the season sitting down. He's a player with plenty to offer upper-end Championship sides but that's his ceiling - not unlike Hourihane at Villa. Cullen currently deserves his start status with Ireland because, well, there's no one better. We badly need quality. But as long as he, Molumby, Knight and one or two others, are regular starters we're going nowhere.
Go Coillte Mach rachad / ní stopfaidh me choíche /
Go seasfaidh mé síos / i lár Chondae Mhaigh Eo.
Actually Cullen finished his Premier League season with Burnley very strongly. He took a while to get going and to get up to the pace of the league, and lost his place for a while in the middle of the season, but when he won it back he did well.
Dara O'Shea was similar last year, started poorly but by the end had done enough to win a transfer back to the league. Cullen, being a bit older and a midfielder rather than a centre back, was always less likely to get a move back. But if Burnley do go back up I'd expect him to remain heavily involved and do well in the Premier League again, albeit they'll obviously sign competition for him because that's what promoted teams do.
Cullen's time in the Ireland team has been kind of a mixed bag. It's largely forgotten now that he was outstanding when he first came in, probably our best player at one point. But the ridiculous two man midfield setup that we employed at times under Kenny, consistently under O'Shea/McCarthy and again to an extent under HH, has done him and our other midfielders no favours at all. You need really exceptional midfielders to play that way and we have had a total of one of those in the last 30 years, and he's long retired. So what you end up with now is our midfielders being set an impossible task and then getting hammered by the support when they're not up to the task they've been set. I'd expect that if we went back to a three man centre midfield - and we absolutely should do that - the performances of Cullen, Knight and Smallbone would significantly improve, as would their standing almond Ireland supporters.
Very much agreed with all of that - with the only change being Jack Taylor for one of those 3. Starting to come into his own with Ipswich and his confidence levels are high
Back in the Premiership.
Has played a lot of game for Burnley this season. Himself and Brownhill have been mainstays midfield. They don't really have any standout forwards or anyone that looks like they will step up or has done it in the Premiership before. I reckon they will have to spend big in the forwards so Cullen could be safe.
Last edited by Olé Olé; 22/04/2025 at 12:13 PM.
Back in the Premier - but only a runners-up medal despite 100 points for Burnley this season. That can't have happened too often. They won the same league with 101 points last time out.
The gap between the Premier and the Championship seems to have extended in the past few years. Burnley and Sheffield United were brutal last year (40 points between them) but second and third this year. Luton the exception with two relegations in a row. Meanwhile, the promoted trio have 50 points between them with four points to go and are all already relegated; nearly 30 years since the three promoted teams all went straight back down.
Obviously being at Burnley is better than being at a mid-table Championship side, but still a step up to really be considered a Premier League level player if we're honest. (Though watch as Burnley end up top half next season now...)
Using average season ratings data from WhoScored.com, the Burnley Express (10 May) has published a ranking of the Clarets' best-performing players in 2024/25. Cullen was 5th, with an average of 6.99. Jaidon Anthony (7.20) came top.
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