BURNLEY is today a football club standing at the crossroads. One fork in the road leads in the direction of the Promised Land and untold Premiership riches.

Possibly still over the horizon, but definitely there if you are prepared to make the journey. The second alternative is a road to nowhere.

And the key to making the treading the right path is direction - from the very top!

No-one has the right to complain at the way Barry Kilby has transformed Burnley with his financial clout.

But if I know the chairman for one thing, it's as a successful businessman who hasn't got into the positions he has without making the right decisions.

So try as I might, I can't understand why the man at the top hasn't told Sheffield United to stick their money where the sun don't shine instead of meekly courting another bid for Ade Akinbiyi.

Maybe it's the striker in me bubbling to the surface, but in my eyes, if you sell your top goalscorer then it's nothing but a backward move.

Yet here we are, sweating over whether this will happen for the third time in a row at a club that supposedly has ambition.

Gareth Taylor was sold off to keep the club afloat, while Robbie Blake's departure was more of his own doing.

However, I fear that selling again would be sheer folly and put Burnley on the path of no return.

We have no cash. That much is patently clear by the manager's frustrating lack of transfer activity.

So what must he be thinking as he contemplates losing a player he fought tooth and nail to bring to Turf Moor less than 12 months ago?

The worry is that should Akinbiyi leave our cash-strapped club and take his 14 goals over the Pennines, an horrific domino effect could follow.

A sub-standard striker replaces him, the goals dry up, the team plummets and disillusioned supporters - sick of seeing assets sold off - begin to disappear.

The manager gets even more disillusioned, the situation worsens and before you know it, all the hard work achieved since getting back into this division slowly starts to unravel.

We all remember those horrendous trips to some of the lower league grounds and many of us had hoped we'd seen the last of that sorry era.

However, in uncertain times the roads leading to the likes of Gigg Lane and Bloomfield Road suddenly seem to be the ones we're in danger of veering towards.