OWEN Coyle’s mantra since taking charge more than two years ago was that he was building for the future of Burnley Football Club. But what does the future now hold without him?

“We’re going to need everyone with their shoulder to the wheel giving everything they can to stay in this Premier League,” rallied the Scot in the summer.

He had just turned down the chance to join boyhood club Celtic.

While fans accepted the success he had brought in a short space of time would turn a bigger spotlight on the Scot, they had no reason to believe he wouldn’t be a man of his word and at least see out the season.

Neither, I suspect, did the players – 10 of whom are out of contract in the summer, along with six more first-year professionals – one of whom is on a month-to-month contract following injury. And the second-year scholars that Coyle has cast his eye over, and even played alongside in the reserves, are also wondering where they stand.

While Coyle’s immediate future is now with Bolton, those he leaves behind have been catapulted into limbo.

As I understand it, tentative talks have only opened with two of the 10 senior professionals.

Coyle’s decision to ditch Burnley for the club where he enjoyed two-and-a-half years as a striker, albeit not first choice, has deep ramifications for individuals AND “the group” he upheld.

The long-serving Brian Jensen, Michael Duff and Robbie Blake face the precarious task of having to impress a new man in order to stay at Turf Moor. Graham Alexander, enjoying his first season in the top flight at 38, has a similar dilemma if it is not to be his last.

Captain Steven Caldwell, central defender Clarke Carlisle, left back Stephen Jordan, midfielder Joey Gudjonsson - who were here when Coyle arrived in November 2007 - and Christian Kalvenes and Steven Thompson - who were among the former St Johnstone boss’s first signings in the summer of 2008 - are all out of contract at the end of the season.

When Coyle made his latest summer signings, he offered his vision of the future to persuade them to jump on board Burnley’s Premier League adventure.

Tyrone Mears, £3million record signing Steven Fletcher and Andre Bikey, among others, loved what he had to say.

Coyle was adamant his players could defy their inferior budget, stand “toe-to-toe” with the best of them and stay up, and they believed him.

“I’ve got a group of players who are hungry, desperate to do well,” he said at the start of the season. “Everybody’s written us off, but we can go with that. It’s not a thing that we get unduly worried about because what we know within our own group is what we can offer to the game.”

Actions speak louder than words, though, and Coyle’s untimely decision to let go of “the wheel” and switch to a club lower in the table, with fewer points, has led many to question whether he was convinced by his own rhetoric afterall.

His abhorrence of footballers’ emphasis on finance was a drum he banged often.

“First and foremost their motivation must be football,” he said.

Money-talk was a major turn-off.

Yet increasingly in the build-up to the January transfer window he bemoaned a budget at least three-and-a-half times lower than their nearest Premier League rivals.

The extra spending power he is set to receive at Bolton Wanderers - a more established top flight club - seems to have tipped the balance against the Clarets’ potential, and the chances of him using it to lure away the “young, hungry” starlets he has captured in the last two years, like Fletcher, Chris Eagles and Kevin McDonald, must be high.

The Trotters, too, could now tempt David Nugent with the funds Burnley couldn’t provide.

In turning his back on Turf Moor with the job only half finished, Coyle has fired a dagger through the heart of the fans who put him on the highest pedestal imaginable, even though their play-off success was tarnished by his dalliance with Celtic.

But Owen Coyle is not bigger than Burnley Football Club.

The players owe it to themselves, and their loyal band of supporters, who are truly smarting at their loss and the circumstances surrounding it, to continue what Coyle started and turn what could have been his long-lasting legacy into their own.