We’ve even made the Financial Times

https://www.ft.com/content/a2724840-9851-4900-b331-e4be9247f7ed

Spoke to the journalist. They spelt name wrong though

Barnsley’s dream team give football club sporting
chance

On Barnsley market’s shoe stall Kieran Hunt, 63, recalls the joy of their only other season in the top flight, in 1997/98.

“It would be brilliant for the town if they go up. It would give the town centre a boost. We need all the help we can get.”

Paul Gallacher, 47, of Barnsley Supporters Trust, said the owners, who took over from local software entrepreneur Patrick Cryne, have kept their promises. “They have not thrown money at the Premier League dream. They have not saddled it with debt. They invest in the club, build slowly.”

But, like any true fan, he cannot relax. “The worry is when the next owner comes along. What they would bring? Getting into the Premier League would be a good point to sell. That worries a lot of fans.”


Promotion bid shows US ownership can be good thing for the beautiful game in England

After the tragicomedy of the European Super League comes a feel-good tale to restore the romance of football. Lowly Barnsley FC have a shot at the big time.

The club rooted in northern England’s defunct coalfields, with a tiny budget, has reached the playoffs for the lucrative Premier League — a season after the team escaped relegation by drawing the final game.

Valérien Ismaël, head coach, is no fan of the Super League, which would have given 15 rich teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid a permanent place and locked out smaller clubs. “This is not football. Football needs to have a dream and to give people hope,” Ismaël told the Financial Times.

Of the six English teams initially backing the ESL before fan outrage forced them to pull out, three are owned by Americans. Pundits believed they were looking to protect their investment by replicating the US system of closed leagues with guaranteed revenue.

Yet Barnsley is also run by Americans.

A consortium led by financier Chien Lee bought the club in December 2017.

Beane turned the Oakland Athletics from no-hopers to play-off contenders by identifying quality players that were missed by other clubs or deployed in the wrong positions.

The club has adopted the high tempo gegenpressing “heavy-metal football” favoured in Germany. The three attackers provide the first line of defence, closing down the opposition to win the ball high up the pitch. That enables them to create chances when opponents are out of position.

It appointed Ismaël from LASK in Austria when Gerhard Struber was headhunted by New York Red Bulls in October 2020.


Most managers change the playing style and therefore the players but by insisting on one with a similar philosophy Lee says he can save money and get better results.

He says he has the second lowest wage bill in the Championship. Wages are the best predictor of League position.

The club must live within its means, with turnover about £10m this year. This is in a league where the average wage bill is £33m and the 24 clubs racked up combined operating losses of £382m last season, according to Deloitte.

Lee and his co-investor Paul Conway had success at Nice in France before Barnsley. They have sold that club but built a portfolio across Europe.

Through Pacific Media Group, an advertising business, they own KV Oostende in Belgium, FC Thun in Switzerland and AS Nancy in France, with each performing better than when acquired. Oostende just finished fifth in the Belgian first division, despite the club’s small size.

But Barnsley’s 23,000-seat Oakwell stadium, which still has wooden seats in one century-old stand, is usually half full and the club’s only major honour is the 1912 FA Cup. So what attracted Lee?

“We feel we can do something meaningful using our vision and expertise. We are long-term investors. If we get into the Premier League the value of the club will go up. We are ahead of schedule.”

Ismaël said the pandemic had helped Barnsley. The increase in the number of substitutes from three to five means he can replace his three exhausted forwards after around an hour and still make two other changes before a match ends.



His small, young, ambitious squad remain underdogs for next week’s two-leg playoff with Swansea, whose time in the Premier League has boosted revenues. They would face Bournemouth or Brentford in a Wembley final on May 29.

An erudite Frenchman who speaks fluent German and English, Ismaël only resorts to cliché once, when asked if his team could survive a season in the Premier League. “My focus is on the next game. I don’t want to start dreaming.”

The town’s 227,000 people could do with a dream.

Once, they made their living from hewing coal. Now they pack boxes. Asos, the online clothing retailer, has its main facility there and courier Hermes is planning a huge warehouse on a former colliery. The club badge featuring a miner with a pickaxe provides a vital connection to the town’s proud industrial past.

On Barnsley market’s shoe stall Kieran Hunt, 63, recalls the joy of their only other season in the top flight, in 1997/98.

“It would be brilliant for the town if they go up. It would give the town centre a boost. We need all the help we can get.”

Paul Gallacher, 47, of Barnsley Supporters Trust, said the owners, who took over from local software entrepreneur Patrick Cryne, have kept their promises. “They have not thrown money at the Premier League dream. They have not saddled it with debt. They invest in the club, build slowly.”

But, like any true fan, he cannot relax. “The worry is when the next owner comes along. What they would bring? Getting into the Premier League would be a good point to sell. That worries a lot of fans.”

 

Got my age wrong as well. Im actually 27