Former Burnley star Robbie Blake admits he would relish Turf Moor return

“A centre forward who got all the big glory and had all the terraces chanting for his name; when you play football and you’re keen, and you’ve got that, it’s what you always want to be,” Blake reflected.

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“Of the mega-superstars I looked at players like Diego Maradona, just how good he was and how technically brilliant he was.

“They were the two players I would want to model myself on.”

Blake was a regular on the Old Gate End terraces.

“I was quite a keen supporter. I wasn’t hardcore though,” he said. “It was pretty violent back in those days and you could get in with the wrong crowd, but luckily I didn’t.

“But I was still pretty passionate.”

It wasn’t until he started playing himself, though, that the football bug really bit.

“I was about nine at my local YMCA,” he added.

“I went in for one training session and then after that the manager wanted to sign me.

“I knocked around on the green and kicked a ball but I didn’t know whether I had any talent or not, but obviously the manager saw some in the first training session.

“I went from strength to strength after that.”

The dream was to play for Middlesbrough, but liquidation for the club in the mid-1980s meant he was unable to progress beyond schoolboy status and he instead joined Darlington.

Blake believes it was fate.

“I think that was the luck I got in football because before I knew it I was playing first team football at 17, whereas the lads who were kept on at Middlesbrough were getting no time on the pitch.

“They were good players, lads who were probably better than me at the time, who didn’t make it.

“In any sport you play you want to play for your hometown team because you’ve got the support of the local people and your family behind you.

“But when that didn’t happen it was no problem because all I wanted to do was play football, and by going to Darlington that launched my career; playing at 17, scoring on my debut - a header if you can believe that!

“It was probably the only one of my career.

“I don’t know about rising like a salmon, I think it just hit me like a salmon.”

They became more spectacular as Blake progressed - not least his unforgettable volleyed winner against Manchester United in Burnley’s first home Premier League game in 2009.

For Blake, that was not his best. A screamer of a free kick - the first of both goals in the Clarets’ 2-0 win against Preston in December 2004 - is his personal favourite.

In total he scored 72 goals for Burnley in 282 appearances across his two spells.

A play-off final and 21 league goals in 68 games for Darlington led to Bradford City making a 21-year-old Blake a £300,000 signing in March 1997.

“It was transfer deadline day and I was laid in bed on a Wednesday when I got a phone call about 10am from Chris Kamara asking me to come down to Bradford but said I had to get down quickly because we only had the day to sort it out.

“So I went down there and sorted it out, and then I met the Queen the next day.

“They’d built a new stand after the fire disaster and the Queen came to open it.”

After helping to fire the Bantams to the then Premiership, and stay up the following year, after a spell with Leeds United Blake eventually became footballing royalty at Turf Moor, where he was to grace the top flight again second time around.

He credits three of the four managers he worked with along the way for the success he enjoyed in East Lancashire.

“First time around Stan (Ternent) was unbelievable and we had a great dressing room then, but we just didn’t have the fire power to get us over the line,” he said.

“When Stan went and Steve Cotterill came in - to be fair he did a great job.

“Cotts was pretty tough, but he was good.

“Looking back at what he did here, and what he’s done since leaving here, he’s a very good manager.

“He did a tremendous job here.

“He was great for me because he motivated me. He made me captain and I was having a great season at that time.

“We just missed out on the play-offs and then we came again. But then there was interest from Birmingham in me and I decided to go.

“Luckily for me he brought me back.

“The rest is history.

“I just wanted to come back and prove there was unfinished business.

“I wanted to try to get Burnley in the Premier League, and luckily it happened under Coyley (Owen Coyle).

“He was an arm round you type, telling you how good you are.

“Coyley came in and got us promoted but if you look at that team, Steve brought in most of the players.

“From a manager’s point of view I think you’re judged on your recruitment. I think that’s key in being a successful manager.”

These are observations that he has perhaps become more aware of since he retired from playing and moved into coaching.

But he maintains the secret to their highs was the dressing room.

“I think you’ve got to have that. If you haven’t got that I don’t think you can achieve anything.

“That does stem from the manager, but it’s also the players inside that dressing room and we had such good characters.

“The promotions I’ve had and the great things I’ve done it’s all down to having a great team spirit in the dressing room.”

Life after that final full-time whistle is daunting for any professional footballer, but Blake is now embracing the other side of the dressing room after embarking on his coaching badges and working as a striker coach for Chesterfield last season under former Claret Paul Cook, working with former Accrington Stanley favourites Gary Roberts and Jimmy Ryan.

Blake is looking for his next coaching opportunity.

He admits if the offer ever presented itself he would jump at the chance to be part of a backroom team at Burnley one day.

“Fingers crossed,” he smiled.