Surprise Burnley FC prediction issued on Scott Parker condition | OneFootball

FLW's Clarets fan pundit believes the club will finish 8th if Scott Parker stays in charge

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Burnley have been predicted to finish outside of the play-off places in the Championship if Scott Parker continues as boss until the end of the season.

The Clarets have had a mixed start to the second-tier campaign, after relegation from the Premier League last season, with Parker criticised for his style of play by parts of the Turf Moor faithful.

They currently sit fourth in the Championship, with seven wins, six draws and two losses from their opening 15 league games, and are among the lowest scorers in the top-half of the division, with 18 goals to their name so far.

Fan pundit gives surprise Burnley finish prediction

Parker's side began the new season on fire, with a 4-1 win over Luton Town and a 5-0 thrashing of Cardiff City in the opening two games, and while they continued to pick up regular victories to stay in the promotion race, recent weeks have seen their form match their less-than-impressive performances.

The Clarets have won one of their last five outings, with draws against Hull City, QPR and West Brom and a loss to Millwall before a win last time against Swansea City to end their poor run, thanks to a stoppage-time penalty from Jay Rodriguez.

Parker may well be under pressure soon unless the team's performances make a clear improvement, and FLW's Clarets fan pundit, Ben Livingstone, believes that the club will fail to make the play-offs next May if he continues at the helm at Turf Moor, after we asked him to predict where Burnley will finish this season.

“It’s really, really hard to predict where we are going to finish," Ben told FLW.

“Purely because, will Parker still be here come the end of the season? I think not, personally.

“What players will we lose in January? That’s a big one. What players will we sign in January? That’s an even bigger one.

“A lot of the players we could easily get rid of, and you wouldn’t even notice, but it’s about the players you bring in. You’ve got to bring in some actual quality.

“My personal view of it is that I think someone at the club thinks that the side in the summer was a lot better than it is. The side we have now is a lot worse than they thought it was.

"They thought it was a good side in the summer, which is why they didn’t spend too much money.

“In terms of an actual prediction, from what we’ve seen so far, I think we will finish 8th.

“I think we will miss out on the play-offs if Scott Parker is the manager, and if we don’t sign anyone of any note in January, or lose the likes of Maxime Esteve and James Trafford.”

Parker believes he is the man to take the club forward

Some Burnley fans may well be against Parker as boss, but he will certainly feel that he has all the right tools at his disposal to take the club back to the Premier League, given their decent squad for the level.

The 44-year-old was hired as Vincent Kompany's successor to do exactly that, and his two previous promotions with Fulham and Bournemouth would likely have been an outstanding feature of his credentials that made him such an attractive proposition to the Clarets' owners.

It has not gone smoothly as yet, but he believes that his team is heading in the right direction with a busy winter schedule ahead.

"We will keep working tirelessly to keep improving and to keep making us better," he told the Burnley Express, after the Swansea game.

“We live in a world where we get judged on a W, an L or a draw. The fine margins against Swansea are that we win the game in the dying seconds, but there were a lot, a lot of positives.

“We’re moving in the right direction and that’s down to the commitment the lads are showing. The next three or four days will be another opportunity to come in, get our boots on and get out on the training pitch and keep working.

“Of course the noise around it at this present moment in time, and rightly so, is that in the attacking side of things we’ve not been clinical enough or certainly not created enough chances...Swansea was totally different.

"We’re obviously moving in the right direction."

That bullish talk from Parker may well have won some Clarets fans over, but the real talking is done on the pitch, and his side will need to go on a good run in the lead up to the new year to make sure they are firmly in the promotion race, or he could be out of a job soon enough.