"They've fallen off" - Blackburn Rovers claim made in Burnley's biggest rivals debate | OneFootball

Different eras make the two clubs difficult to separate in terms of size

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Burnley aren’t short of local rivals, hailing from the North West of England.

That area of the country has one of the highest concentrations of professional football clubs in the world, but there’s always one particular rival you care about beating the most.

We asked our Burnley Fan Pundit, Ben, who he believes the Clarets’ fiercest rivals are.

The natural follow-up then, of course, is which of the two clubs is the biggest?

Fan Pundit divided on whether Burnley or Blackburn Rovers are the bigger club

Ben isn’t one to dive into the ‘bigger club’ debates too often, but he did provide us with some of his thoughts on the topic.

Speaking to Football League World, Ben said: “I mean, it's clear that the biggest rivals are Blackburn.

“And I don't like the whole ’who’s the bigger club’ debate, I don't know how you can really judge that.

“If you're looking at history, obviously Blackburn are the bigger club, aren’t they? They've won quite a few FA Cups. They've won the Premier League and stuff like that. So if you're talking in your bigger in terms of trophies and stuff like that, then yeah, it's definitely Blackburn.

“If you’re talking in terms of fanbase and stuff like that, obviously Blackburn have a 30,000-seater stadium and they normally average about 11-12,000.

“They give away fans a full two-tier stand, and they always have one entire section of the upper [tier] shut completely.

“So, I think, in terms of fanbase, obviously Burnley have a waiting list for season tickets in a 22,500-seater stadium, and I think we only give 2,000 seats to the away fans, so I think it's quite clear that Burnley [are] winning in terms of attendances and stuff like that at the minute.

“Playing better football on the pitch, you know, we’ve had a lot more Premier League years in the last decade than they have, and they've fallen off a lot.

“I mean Burnley, I don’t want to say Burnley are a small team by any means, you know. We've won two first divisions, won an FA Cup and stuff like that. We're not exactly a small team. We're a small town, but we're not a small team.”

Eras will likely define the debate between Burnley and Blackburn

As Ben said in his answer, pitting the size of a club against one another is a difficult task and produces different answers depending on the criteria you use.

In terms of historical achievement, it is indeed difficult to look past the era of Blackburn troubling — and bettering — teams like Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, with players like Alan Shearer in their ranks.

However, Ben’s correct to say that Burnley have certainly had a bigger impact towards the top of the pyramid in recent times.

The Clarets have spent eight seasons in the top flight over the past decade, rising as high as 7th in the Premier League through a solid era of top-flight football under Sean Dyche.

Blackburn fans won’t need reminding that they haven’t had a taste of that division since the 2011/12 season, getting on for almost 15 years ago.

This means, as is often the case, the debate rests heavily on the age of the person you ask and the immediate era they think of when the club is mentioned.

Ask a younger fan, and they will undoubtedly see Burnley as a bigger proposition than Blackburn, but those sentiments will almost certainly be reversed if you ask an older fan who saw the Blue & Whites lift the Premier League.