Source: FOOTYMAD
Deals for Fletcher, Harvey, Knowles and MacDonald
It was a bitter sweet day yesterday at Turf Moor when four of the club's development squad were offered new deals but four others were told their futures lay away from Turf Moor. The players offered the deals are Wes Fletcher, Alex-Ray Harvey, Dominic Knowles and Alex MacDonald, and three of them have had some football away from Burnley this season as part of their development.Fletcher spent three months at struggling Stockport in League Two, MacDonald has been with Inverness Caledonian Thistle since January and Harvey is currently enjoying a loan spell with Fleetwood in the Blue Square Premier League and scored his first goal for them last weekend.MacDonald is the elder statesman of that group. He's been a full time pro for three years now and it was three years ago that he made his debut as a substitute in our last home game of the season against Cardiff City.Fletcher and Harvey have just completed their second years whilst Knowles is the youngest of the three having signed his first professional deal just last summer.All four have featured strongly in the reserves this season whilst they've been at the club with MacDonald and Fletcher leading the goalscoring. Fletcher also got his first team debut back in August as a very late substitute in the Carling Cup win at Morecambe.It's congratulations to those four, but at the same time it's sad news that four other players will be leaving the club.Three second year professionals - Chris 'Scorer' Anderson, Nik Kudiersky and Chris Lynch - have all been released alongside first year pro Michael King. All four have had injury problems whilst in the professional ranks. The two central defenders, Kudiersky and Lynch, both had knee surgery during the 2009/10 season, King has been in and out at times with injury this season whilst Anderson is currently out of action with a hairline fracture in his foot.Manager Eddie Howe said yesterday: "It's tough to make these decisions, but hopefully the four players offered deals will have the chance to progress further with us next season and we wish the others all the very best in their future careers."I can only echo that. Whilst delighted for the four who will remain with the Clarets, I am very disappointed with the news that the other four will be leaving us and would wish them all the very best and hope to hear of them getting new clubs in the very near future.
