"GLEN Little is not fit to lace Chris Waddle's boots!" The now infamous quote Glenn Roeder used when explaining the reason why the fans' favourite had been bombed from the Burnley first team.

Assistant boss Roeder was sat alongside Waddle at a fans' forum, soon after the former Newcastle, Spurs and England winger was appointed Clarets manager in the wake of Adrian Heath's departure to Everton in the summer of 1997.

The scathing remark infuriated supporters who had watched their side slump to the foot of the Division Two table, while being force-fed football the Waddle way following an influx of new players deemed to be no better - and in many cases inferior to those already on the books.

Little still vividly recalls Roeder's comments - how could he forget? - but insists he bears no grudges, even accepting the perceived criticism.

"Most people still remember that entire season for the comments made by Glenn, but I think the supporters took more of an exception to it than I ever did," said Little.

"It never bothered me because Glenn was probably right - and anyhow I loved the way Chris Waddle played!

"At the end of the previous season I was feeling felt like I'd settled in well at Burnley. I had spoken to Adrian Heath, who told me he bought me for the following season and that I'd be a better player with a full pre-season behind me.

"Then, on holiday, a mate told me Inchy (Heath) had gone. I never really got to work with him that much because I'd only been there six months, but he went to Everton with Howard Kendall and there I was stuck on a beach feeling strange.

"Later that week, my mate said 'you are never going to guess who the next manager is?' - and when he told me it was Chris Waddle I was well happy."

That elation was short lived.

Little, who had arrived at Turf Moor just nine months earlier, recalled: "When Glen came in he said everyone would be given a chance, but within a couple of days there were five or six new players in - the likes of Mark Ford, Steve Blatherwick, Lee Howey and Michael Williams - and he played them all.

"That first five or six months wasn't great and I was frozen out of the team.

"I was used to training with the reserves back at Crystal Palace, but that was because I was still a youngster looking for a contract.

"The difference at Burnley was I was hoping to be in the first team, but when you are training with the reserves at the opposite end of the training pitch, you are out of sight, out of mind.

"I was coming in after training and Chris wasn't even speaking to me, so it was a bad, bad spell - probably the only time I have ever felt unhappy at the club and feeling it was time to go."

By Christmas Burnley were rock bottom of Division Two, with just four wins to their name.

Waddle had featured in almost every game, while Little was restricted to the odd League Cup run-out and five league appearances as a substitute.

Finally, against league leaders Watford in early January, Waddle bit the bullet and turned to another mercurial winger.

Burnley won 2-0 and Little had a blinder. "I felt I was being stitched up when Chris finally gave me a game," he now recalls.

"Watford had lost something like two games all season and Glenn told me I was going to get my chance - but added I might not get another.

"At that stage I reckon even the kit man would have got a game before me, but we played really well that day and slowly started to turn things around and towards the end of that season everything seemed to be going well again."

Welcomed back into the fold, Little was back to tormenting opposing full backs, and with the two Andy's - Payton and Cooke - scoring with gay abandon, the scene was set for a great escape on the final day of the campaign.

"The Plymouth game is still one of my best memories," Little insists.

"We went into the game needing to win and I remember chipping a cross onto Andy Cooke's head to kick-start a 2-0 win.

"It was probably one of my most draining days in football and the relief when we stayed up was everywhere because that game was more important than any other - probably more than Scunthorpe two years later.

"If we had gone down, God knows where we would have ended up and we could have fallen into oblivion."

During his darkest days at Turf Moor, Little had several chances to jump ship. Notts County lodged a token bid and Stockport, then managed by Gary Megson, had the chance to seal the winger's signature before shying away from a miserly £50,000 fee that had been agreed.

But a character who would shape Little's future soon came onto the scene for the first time, as Little remembers all too well.

"I first met Stan Ternent while he was managing Bury," he revealed. "Their reserve team coach, Harry Wilson, came round and told me he was taking me to meet someone.

"I wondered where the hell we were going, and he took me to Stan's house. I remember after we met, Stan's last words were 'Don't worry son, I'll get you out of there'.

"I went away and never heard anything again, and the next time we spoke was when he took over from Chris the following summer.

Stan's first words to me as Burnley manager were: "I'm giving you a new contract and you had better ****** sign it!"