The Bradshaw sale is not just ‘more of the same’

Before I start, I just want to acknowledge that I’ve not made it a secret on here that while frustrating at times (selling Hourihane really hurt, he’s one of my favourite players of all time), I am behind the whole recruitment strategy that we have been running for the last 3 or 4 years, so bare that in mind.

The circumstances of the sale are very familiar, yes. Last year of his contract, sold to a team not a million miles ahead of ourselves, a player that’s been a regular starter, sold towards the end of the window.

However, we’ve got a decent price (with future interest) for a player that wanted to move down south because he has a baby on the way in 14 weeks. I don’t care what anybody says, we would be complete ******** to stand in the way of someone that wants to move down south to be with his partner and family (and his parents/in laws, I would assume). We hung on as long as we could reasonably do so and we got the price that we obviously deem acceptable.

There was also a statement from our CEO within the article detailing the sale, outlining the decision and making clear the intentions to reinvest imminently. We’ll obviously have to see if that comes off, but I for one am very happy with our CEO recently. He seems to have really grasped the communications part of the job recently. He’s still having to do so in a foreign language, remember. He’s only going to get better.

 

Totally agree with this.

Just a bit disappointing we don’t have a replacement through the door before agreeing he leave.

 

That's the thing. I'm unhappy about losing Bradshaw but we've lost a lot of players much better than him in the past and got over it. My issue is not having a replacement set. They still had another week to let Bradshaw go for us to find a replacement if it all rushed up on us.

I think we'll lose tomorrow but have said that all week. Scunny will react. Losing Bradshaw and replacing him with a not very fit Adeboyejo is a concern, especially having no proper backup. I just hope it isn't the same scenario of when we lost Winnall the other year, no replacements apart from Heckingbottom claiming Hedges was, even though we all knew he was a winger and that was it.

I do think we'll sign a couple of players before next week, one of them probably being Chaplin, but again doesn't hide the fact we've left ourselves short for a very tough game at weekend. Those three points tomorrow could impact our form for another few games.

 

Bradshaw thread no.44

 

play owt like weve played this season and we will beat scunny, even if im called on to dig my robson gold shin pads and my old puma king booits art to do a job upfront☺

 

Isn't Moncur a sensible replacement? Sit him behind Moore and let him do what he does best.

 

What? Play for 20 mins then stroll around?

 

Not sure if you went to the game on Tuesday, but Bradshaw was the worst player on the pitch, ran all night long but was ineffective, if we play like we did on Tuesday against Scunthorpe they won’t be able to live with us, we were magnificent & should have had 8 goals minimum never mind the 4 we got.
Bradshaw wants to be with his southern pregnant girlfriend & puts that before anything else, he was professional & has handled it properly, as have the club, we held out for the money we wanted & got it, something else we haven’t done for years.
Don’t tag this side & this approach to the games as same as the attitude & desire shown in the last 18 months, it is light years apart.
The board have stated that the money will be reinvested immediately, let them do that.
A player who buys into what we are trying to do, moulded into a style of play set by this manager will be much better than a bloke who now wants to play for Millwall.
This side is an absolute pleasure to watch, we work hard, have passion, score for fun & haven’t conceded a goal yet this season in the league, it’s early days but for me we are only going to improve & I can’t wait.
Lots more positives than negatives thru the whole club, let’s concentrate on that.

 

Paid £600k for him, final year of contract, can leave in the summer for nothing, offered him
a new contract and he turned it down, Millwall upped their offer from £1 million to £1.25 million
and quite sensibly in my view, we've accepted it. Player happy, Barnsley FC happy and with
Bahre of Hannover and Chaplin from Portsmouth rumoured to be joining us before next Fridays
deadline, presumably our Coaches will be happy.? As for us fans, we have to accept that we buy
and sell players. Only two of the squad that played at Wembley against Millwall still at the Club,
re- Davies and Isgrove. We're Barnsley, it's what we do.!

 

I can’t see him being fit enough to replace Bradshaw.

 

I agree to a certain extent but people are bound to be sceptical.

Out of the players out of contract next summer, Bradshaw, Davies, Fryers, Pinillos, Moncur, Mowatt etc, Bradshaw’s the only one who’s performed well enough to have any interest in him & we’ve flogged him.

The true test of this board comes next summer when Lindsay, Pinnock, Potts, Thiam, Moore, Cavare, Isgrove (if he ever gets fit) & Hedges will all be entering the final years of their contracts.

That’s when we’ll be able to properly judge them

 

Moncur can’t do 90 minutes, I can’t see any manager wanting to play someone who’s knackered after an hour & who they have to use a sub on every game, only leaves 2 tactical changes, even less if you have an injury

 

I didn't go unfortunately. I just feel he's got something about him, especially at this level.

 

I’d argue that Pillinos & Mowatt have outperformed Bradshaw in every game & Moncur is a marmite player for most of the fans, he has certainly changed games when he’s come on.
Bradshaw would get goals in this league but so will others, he’s certainly not ‘irreplaceable’ IMO!!

 

Thiam has been knackered well before 60 minutes each time he's played!

 

You lost me at Pillinos...

 

I’m not meaning in the first 4 games, I’m meaning throughout their time with us. None of the others have done enough for us to get any decent offers for them

 

And that’s even worse, that means you’ve two guaranteed subs every game

 

Bradshaw will not be a big loss. Just think about it, if he played with say Rochdale and we were buying, would you think he was good value for the club at £1m+ add ons? We have robbed Millwall. He gets a goal every 4.6 games for us and can hardly be described as a creative player. We have had plenty of strikers over the years who run around a lot. He has a massive monkey on his back too with him being Millwall's record signing. The expectations will be far higher than he can deliver. Best of luck to him in "The Lions Den".