The last 15 years

If we look back on how we have progressed as a club on the playing field over the last 15 years then I’m sure most will agree that we are at a stalemate.

The most successful seasons in that time for me were in 2011 under Mark Robins and also in 2017 under Paul Heckingbottom. The two seasons have very similar contrast in how we as fans see championship stability.

The 2011 and 2017 teams never had any imminent threat of relegation as we finished the seasons quite comfortable with the team settling at 17th in 2011 and 14th in 2017.

The things that link the so called success in terms of championship stability was a mixture of some key elements in

Experience (2011)
Youth (both 2011 & 2017)
No sell offs from promoted team (2017)

We had the experience in 2011 in Players like Jason Shackell, Marlon Harewood, Jay McEveley, Nathan Doyle and Andy Gray mixed with the youth of Jacob Butterfield, Ruben Noble Lazarus and Jacob Mellis.

In 2017 we kept the team together until January which carried over the momentum from the previous season but already had championship experience in our squad in the players of Adam Hammill, Aidy White, Saidy Janko, Alex Mowatt and Matty James whilst having the youth of Ryan Kent, Adam Armstrong, Josh Scowen and James Bree etc.

The key to both successes is the mixture of the three key elements that we severely lack with the current squad (especially experience). This isn’t me being all negative btw as I’m mearly expressing a common fact that any Barnsley team that has not been in a relegation scrap has had a mixture of the three elements I’ve given.

We tried the Keith Hill experiment from 2012 buying unproven L1 and L2 players that failed to now adopting a similar recruitment style albeit on a bigger scale with the focus on youth being the word.

For me it’s always been plain and obvious throughout those 15 years that to have any success in the championship for a team like ours, you need to recruit in the right areas and have a blend of youth and experience. That gives you a good starting chance. Hopefully we might get lucky this year but as a fan I’d like us to sign 2-3 heads that have played at this level and also in this league.

 

I wonder how much Butterfield is on? If he’s within our wage structure then there is hope we can get effective experienced players st this level.

 

We've come a helluva long way since Johnny Steel though!!

 

Can make you think why bother? It's the hope of that great season that keeps you going regardless of the division. It was only saturday that I went back on something I'd said recently and told our lass that I enjoyed winning matches at league 1 level more than getting spanked by teams in the Championship.

 

Everybody loves a win but to prefer league 1 football to championship football is not a concept I could ever buy into.

If the club released a statement to say that we had no ambition except to maintain league 1 status, I wouldn't be buying a season ticket until that changed.

Plus we certainly didn't get spanked by Fulham or Charlton, nor Luton.. Couple of errors in the first half combined with some sloppy play of our own making made them look far better than they were.. 2nd half we were the better team.

 

It's amazing how the euphoria of the Fulham win can turn into despair so quickly though. To the point that you question where the next win is coming from.

 

Only for those pushed easily to despair.. I'm a more calm calculated type.

 

I agree, i bought a season ticket on the early bird after the great season we had but now feel conned after the sale of pinnock lindsey and especially moore so late on. The joke about it being our best transfer window ever is running very thin now. We might stay up but it will take a hell of a lot of hard work to do so after giving points away already to our relegation rivals...

 

I waxed lyrical about the new recruits and we replaced players in key areas. However, when we didn't bring anybody to play in midfield I was concerned about Mcgeehan and rightly so. I was then bemused as to why Bahre was made captain and even more confused as to why Mcgeehan hasn't been dropped in favour of our only other fit midfielder Styles.

I'm less optimistic now as already I'm starting to draw comparisons with 17/18 season. The squad isn't balanced. It's top heavy with wingers, only one out and out striker who is injured and another brought in who isn't match fit.

Central midfield is thread bare. I'd at least like to see one or two free agents coming in otherwise we could be down by Chrtistmas and I will be thinking what a pointless exercise.

 

But really we’ve only lost pinnock as Davies wasn’t our player any more and Lindsey and Moore aren’t up to championship level yet. The pinnock sale was a kick in the conkers as he was the crown jewel from last season but this is a big step up whoever you are.

 

Jesus give me strength

 

You feel conned . But Davies was going no matter what. Lindsay and Pinnock turned down contract offers way before the early bird offer. and I for 1 am not sure Moore will cut the mustard in the championship. But would have liked to have kept him.( Seriously good luck to the lad. I’m not wishing him to fail. Only against us) I also don’t like the strategy fully. But bought my season ticket knowing it and the pitfalls that hopefully are shortlived.

 

Rather have stalemate than regression.
Although I don’t think we have stalemate

 

Both Lindsay & Moore played in the championship last time & looked up to it, two of our better performers.

 

We could have offered davies more money and he would have stayed. We could have keep lindsey and pinnock and sold them in jan when were comfortable in mid table and safe (you never know they might have even stayed if we were pushing for top 6) and i see absolutely no reason to sell moore what so ever. You only get better in the championship by playing in said league. If i knew all 4 players were going to leave id have never had bought a season ticket!!

 

But my point was you feel conned. And the club did make better offers. Lindsay in fact wouldn’t even enter into negotiations. So would you have kept him and taken a risk of the previous debacles In The January window or take what you can get now. Maybes are just that.

 

I think the OP is an intresting one & one worthy of debate for me. Since admin we flirted briefly with dropping into the fourth tier of English football & a couple of wins eventually saw us safe. Since then, as your rightly say @royston tyke the season we finished 14th under Hecky was the only time we were really comfortably mid table & a window of us our losing our best players saw us slump from play off contenders to mid table.

I'd have to conclude that this season staying up will be a success. I'd be surprised id DS leads us into the next season, but hopefully the new owners can start to stabilise our position to some extent. The model of living within our means makes it hard to retain our best players & I can't see that changing. Our success will always be based on us recruiting well & developing talent. In that respect we are a big club, compared to most in L1 & L2, so attracting new players is less of an issue than retention.

I'm not massively optimistic, but not massively negative too, I'm just accepting that, at the moment, that is where we are.

 

And both left because our policies with transfers etc

 

Mark Robins left because he was told we weren't going down the loan route again.The previous season we had spent 3 million pounds on loans and at the end of the season the board said enough was enough.3 million outlay with not a penny back in return.

 

10/11 season we only had Trippier, Hill and Mellis on loan.

The 09/10 season we spent a fare bit. Halfreddson, Shotton, D1ckinson, Doyle, Filekovic.

I'd say overall Davey wasted more money though.