Blundering Burnley academy chief resigns as brutal assessment of Turf Moor stars sent to wrong WhatsApp group

An academy chief at Burnley has been forced to resign after he sent a brutal assessment of the club's players to the wrong WhatsApp group.

Former St Mirren academy boss David Longmuir has stepped down after his stinging critique of 37 Turf Moor stars was sent to the Lancashire club's Under 21 squad, rather than the scout or agent it was reportedly intended for. That lead to boss Scott Parker and his Burnley first team squad getting wind of the damning report, which filleted many of the signings made by previous manager Vincent Kompany.

It dismissed one player as a "waste of money" and described another trio of having a "strange athletic shape," being "rubbish" and a "disaster - mad guy." The only players to escape Longmuir's wrath were goalkeeper James Trafford, Josh Brownhill and Josh Cullen. The Clarets head of football development Paul Jenkins wrote to all academy players' parents in confirm that Longmuir's resignation had been accepted.

Longmuir rose through the ranks as a coach with the Buddies before landing the top job in their academy. Similar roles at Orlando City, Shrewsbury Town and a plum gig with New York Red Bulls followed.

A source told the Sun: "He wrote this report which was pretty scathing about quite a few of the first-team. It looks like it was written for an agent because there was a lot of detail about how much he thought each player was worth.

“He sent it on WhatsApp but sent it to the Under-21 players so the first-team and the manager found out. It is a pretty indiscreet document so I believe he was hauled in and the only available outcome was that he would leave the club.”

The report begins: “This is not easy to number as so many subjective parts re - what they cost, current injury, age, etc.