Probably going slightly against the grain here but I think we have to just put our faith in the club and that whatever happens in the next 24 hours, week, transfer window, the summer (and beyond) is going to be done in the best interested of the club. Does the prospect of Sam going to 'them' hurt? Two ducking right it does. Am I surprised by it? Yes. Can he be replaced? Course he can. We've literally had the best 12 months at Barnsley that I have seen in nearly 25 years of supporting us - that doesn't happen by chance. It happens by having clever people at the top of the tree who have directed this club from bottom of league one to where we are today. Simple put, for now, they *deserve* our blind faith. None of us know what's happening behind closed doors, we might have secured Fletcher on an end of season loan deal? (Would make some kind of sense with the lad from Brentford heading their way). If something like that is the case then it kind of makes logical sense to sell Winnall when he'd be free to walk away in the summer. Like the rest of you I am baffled by the thought of Winnall leaving as it goes against a lot of what i thought the club were trying to do. That being said, now is not the time to rant and rave and get annoyed. Let's sit tight till February and then if it still feels like the world is ending then we can reassess. One final key point i keep hearing is that 'we can't replace a striker of sams quality for 500k'. I think there's two things that I don't like about this statement. First and foremost is 'we probably can'. When you go through our entire first team, the whole cost of assembling it was less than a million and given the managements ability to pick up players from lower leagues I have faith in them finding someone. Second of all, we're not restricted by just spending 500k. We've received nearly £15 million over the summer in transfers with rumours of possibly another £4/5million for Bree. I don't think it's completely unrealistic that we sell Sam for 500k to add to the transfer fee of his replacement. Maybe management have spotted someone who they feel can replace him (e.g Bogle, someone similar) and the additional £500k is enough to make the transfer possible. Maybe slightly waffling now, but let's keep faith with the club and just wait till the close of the window before having serious meltdowns.
Sam is a very good goal scorer and not the best footballer on the field. Give him the ball anywhere other than in the box and he'll lose it. A player who makes the most of his assets. Good luck to him.
Awoke to the news of Sam's departure with a great deal of annoyance. This post does put it in some kind of perspective though. It's just f@cking Wednesday AGAIN!!!!!
Me too. However, 500k from the sale of Sam could be the tipping point in the transfer being made? Obviously speculation and none of us know. I just think for now we need to sit tight try and not panic
'We've literally had the best 12 months at Barnsley that I have seen in nearly 25 years of supporting us - that doesn't happen by chance. ' .....I guess we'll see over the next few weeks wether that's true or not , my view has always been it is down to chance
Can't say I really know a great deal about what wages players can command. I'd have thought we'd have been able to afford his wages though? Anyway, the post wasn't exclusively about Bogle, I'm sure there's other irons in the fire and the main point was I trust the club to find a suitable replacement.
Can't say I agree with that, but respect your opinion. Going from 68th best team to 28th best team in England in the space of 12 months seems far too big an improvement to purely be chance/luck.
I've posted on another thread that we can likely afford the transfer fee but if any club barring say 2 at our level also go for him we will struggle to compete. Would come down to convincing the player that he can play regularly with us and therefore get a better move like others have and will do.
