FOREVER CLARET: JOHN FRANCIS

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In this week's 'Forever Claret' we caught up with former Burnley striker John Francis following his visit to Turf Moor last month

2024-01-16T11:00:00.000Z

FOREVER CLARET: JOHN FRANCIS

In this week's 'Forever Claret' we caught up with former Burnley striker John Francis following his visit to Turf Moor last month

2024-01-16T11:00:00.000Z

In this week's 'Forever Claret' we caught up with former Burnley striker John Francis following his visit to Turf Moor last month

Former Clarets forward John Francis admits he 'holds special memories' from his time at Turf Moor as the ex-striker recently reflected on his two spells at Burnley during his visit to the Clearly Interior Longside Lounge and half-time guest in December.

Francis signed for Burnley in 1990 from Sheffield United and made over 100 appearances which included promotion from Divison Four in his second year at the Club. The Dewsbury-born forward left the Clarets to join Cambridge in 1993, but returned to Turf Moor just one season later and once again helped the Club secure promotion, this time to the Division One.

Speaking to Burnleyfootballclub.com, Francis highlighted some of the stand out moments from his time in East Lancashire and the 'unique bond' within the dressing room which saw two promotions in three years.

“First of all, it’s always nice coming back here, you know. It’s really good memories for me and it’s always nice to be invited back over. I enjoy coming to Turf Moor and it’s good to be back today watching the game from the stands.

“You receive a good reception and get a nice applause when you come back to Burnley and it’s nice to be appreciated and I always look forward to coming back here."

On his time at the Club, Francis explained: “Well, I think people always remember the Plymouth game, the York game when we won the league. Always good memories of being here and it’s nice to be still recognised as part of history.

“Yeah, it was a unique bond in the dressing room. There still is, I still speak to Roger (Eli) and few the other likes as well. But there was a special bond and I think it was more so that we had a good camaraderie.

“But also, the team we built, there were some really good footballers and you know we had that winning mentality."

Francis was in attendance as a guest to watch the Clarets take on Everton and the former Burnley favourite had high praise for Vincent Kompany, the players and the progress made in the last 18 months at Turf Moor.

The 60-year-old said: “I've just been speaking about the job we've done last season and you know, it's unbelievable. But you got to look at the type of players he did it with, a lot of young players and some not played in England before.

“So, he did it with the likes of that team and they're going into the best league in the world. The expectations are harder and obviously, it's really massive challenge for the club.

“But we've got a great manager, that plays the right way and we have some great players and once they’re at their best hopefully that will do for this season and hopefully we can get the points to stay in the league."

During his visit, Francis spoke about the 'stunning changes' made around the stadium and reminisced on how it used to look when he was a player.

“It really is fantastic. I've been a few times since the place has changed and it's evolved massively. I mean I went down to see a couple of the guys in the community last week.

"It was quite stunning to change what happened from when we used to be there. Frank Casper's office used to be in that corner and the secretary office was over there. It's completely changed and it's a massive, massive difference, but it's great to see."