Appleton insists it will take ‘hell of an offer’ to quit job at Portsmouth (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Appleton insists it will take ‘hell of an offer’ to quit job at Portsmouth

11:00am Friday 19th October 2012 in Sport By Suzanne Geldard, Burnley FC reporter

'HELL OF AN OFFER' Appleton

MICHAEL Appleton has not ruled himself out of the running for the vacant manager’s job at Burnley.

The Portsmouth boss is believed to be a strong contender to succeed Eddie Howe at the Turf Moor helm.

However, he has told Pompey that – despite the club’s financial troubles – it would take “one hell of an offer” to prise him away from Fratton Park.

“The way things stand, until a football club comes in and says to (administrator) Trevor (Birch) ‘can we have permission to speak to Michael?’ then nothing is going to happen,” he said.

“I have stuck around for 11-and-a-half months so it would take one hell of an offer and one hell of a football club to prise me away.

“It’s like anything in life, you have been given a compliment that someone else is supposedly interested in your services so you are doing something right.

“As a player you get it quite a lot, whatever level you are playing at.

“This is now the first experience I have had of it as a manager. But as soon as you start patting yourself on the back and getting carried away football has got a great way of slapping you in the face.”

For Burnley, the interview process is ongoing. With a number of candidates in the frame, an official approach has yet to be made for anyone on their list.

The Clarets are understood to be considering managers both in and out of work, and are believed to have held talks with at least 10, including ex-Wolves boss Mick McCarthy, former Hull manager Nick Barmby and Sean Dyche, who was sacked by Watford in the summer despite leading them to their highest league finish in four years.

The board are not anticipating making an appointment until the end of next week, at the earliest.

“We are trying to see as many people as possible because we want to look at all the angles, and then the idea then is to focus on three or four and have second interviews, maybe with some other members of the board as well,” explained co-chairman John Banaszkiewicz.

Fellow chairman Mike Garlick added: “It's interesting times at the moment because we aren't the only club looking for a new manager in the region. I think what maybe differentiates ourselves from the others clubs is that are looking is that we do want to progress and we do want to move up the table and, ultimately we do want to get back into the Premier League, but we aren't desperate this season. We don't have to do it this season.

“We want to make the right appointment for the long-term, not just for the next few weeks.”

Terry Pashley has taken caretaker charge in the meantime, and is preparing for the visit of Blackpool in tomorrow’s televised game (kick-off 5.20pm).

Defender David Edgar is a doubt after only returning to training today following a long-haul flight from Honduras at the end of Canada’s ultimately failed World Cup 2014 qualifying campaign.

“David is a bit of a concern,” said Pashley, who has been boosted by Danny Ings’ return.

The fit-again striker joined in full training this week after recovering from his second serious knee injury in a year, but Pashley admitted he will not take any risks with the 20-year-old.

“He has trained for two days exceptionally well. He's had a little bit of stiffness after both sessions but they've been quite long sessions. The next day he has been fine,” he said.

“But I don't want to set the lad back. He's had a lot of disappointments over the last 18 months.”

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