Don rowing

After reading many posts on here regarding 'the don' I a tuly had the pleasure of talking to him about 15 months ago, it was a non football related issue I spoke with him about initially but soon turned into a discussion on the club and mr cryne. He come across as a very genuine bloke who was fully aware at the time both he and cryne were under immense critics from certsin pockets of Barnsley fans, he went on to say that cryne took time to read such forums like this and at times was hurt and offended about things he read, he also stated that most Barnsley fans will never realise how much money he's pumped into our club aswell. Although sometimes most on here think i'll not hear a bad word said about the club I'm just a realist who thinks we should be grateful for the league and financial predicament were in, no debt, championship status and half decent prospects, you only have to look 15 mile down the motorway to see how far we are in front of a certain Sheff united.

We'd all like to have more money and better players but like it or lump it for the time being we've got to accept what we have and hope that 1 or 2 of these young lads can turn up trumps and go on to net us a few million quid.

 

Great post when some people post on here its so tunneled vision people never see the other side of anything. I also doupt they know or care that they could be hurt. Expecialy someone who has pumped millions of his own cash into the club asking for nothing back (some people on here moan about buying tickets that are 27£ never mind donating anything to there so called beloved club). I for one am greatfull if you look at teams around us there all bigger towns and citys reaulting in more fans resulting in more money, were truely are a great side and achiveing great things. We couls easly have been like pompy are now if not worse at one point. Even if we are relagates this season ans im sure we wont be, we have a team and ill be behind them! YOU REDS!

 

Totally agree about the Don but he is public enemy number one to some fans who will just blame him everything. Personally I think he does a pretty good job for a very demanding customer base, many of which want a scapegoat to vent their frustrations on. I know he has dropped some clangers, the Liverpool ticket fiasco being the biggest but generally I think he gets most things right.

 

Happy Clappers have started early this season !!

 

I may be drunk... But a drunk man never lies

 

oh i see now....the don is a wonder and we at BFC are so lucky to have him....... glad you have clarified that as i was under the impression he couldn't manage a hot dinner

hth

 

Football is like no other business. Most people are very passionate about their club and coupled with the very high cost of watching your team, it's easy to see how people get wound up. Don's problem is that he is the public face of the club but doesn't have any clout so it is unfair that he gets so much stick. I can also understand Cryne being upset by criticism as he has put a lot of money into the club, that is undeniable.

However, fans should be able to criticise the club if they think we are performing poorly as a club and business and there is a lot to criticise unfortunately. The main problem being that it is run like a fourth division club which is holding us back.

 

Cryne gets far far more praise than stick and the number bleating about him you can count on the fingers of one hand. You're always going to get the odd pillock who thinks he should be bailing out the club even more than he has done so far. However, look at the dog's abuse the Newcastle chairman gets from his own fans at every match and they've qualified for Europe. So if Cryne is hurt by one or two pillocks, he needs to grow a pair. As for the Don, the problem we've all got is that he seems to run everything from the Marketing to the club secretary and day to day management of the club. Most of these he is good at but as a Marketing Manager (i doubt whether he is qualified) he's a PR disaster. You see countless initiatives from other clubs including the likes of Featherstone Rovers but what do we offer in our 125th anniversary - a mug and a key ring. Missed opportunities galore to increase the club's revenue outside of the game. That's what's galling the fans more than anything and yes, I do think quite a lot of people on here could do a better job of Marketing the club than the Don.

 

Yes.........I've met 'THE DON' and he is a nice bloke.
Only criticism I would have of him is that the directors should look at ways of selling the club to a wider audience.
For example - trying to reach parts of Yorkshire other than Barnsley and trying to give the club a modern look with a more up beat logo and merchandise.

As for Pat Cryne - we will always be in his debt.
My only criticism of PC is that it seems he hasn't got enough money to prime the pump at Barnsley.

Since PC took over we have been shedding good players. There hasn't been a period where we have actually built a team. If Barnsley retains its players then this will undoubtedly attract the fans back to the WELL.
For the past few seasons we have had only one good player in the team at any one time - Howard, Shackell, Hammill, Vaz Te, Butterfield

We need to retain some of these players. Unfortunately I don't think PC has the money to make this happen so IF POSSIBLE the club needs to be sold on to someone or an organisation that can. I fully understand that this is much easier said than done.

 

i assume that you actually work for the club and know how the buisness is being run to make that claim

 

Course I don't work for the club - if I did it would be run more proficiently and with a bit of ambition.

You continue accepting/defending ineptitude though if it makes you feel better.

 

couldn't agree more, if you look at the promotion team of 97.... its entirely possible Redfearn and a couple of others would have been sold in the January if football and finances were as they are today,

we need to try and build without selling, unless we get a fair price, something we can't seem to manage, is that totally the dons fault? im not so sure but he is the public face of BFC and as such will always get the blame, unfairly or not.

 

a Marketing Manager

What sort of salary package would a decent Marketing Manager command, £40K - £60K? That's an awfull lot of extra money to raise from a small fanbase just to stand still, never mind generate additional revenues. We could always out source it I suppose; unfortunately I fear it would then be the job of a series of spotty oik interns to market the club.

 

For the avoidance of all doubt

Frustration at, and criticism of, BFC's current malaise in commercial activity and it's direct bearing on how Keith Hill has to manage the playing staff in terms of contracts, calibre of player etc is entirely in line with being aware of, and thankful for the role Patrick Cryne (and his family) have played in stopping Oakwell being a housing estate and ensuring that we at least have a football club.

However, we don't operate in a vacuum - football moves on and we need to.

I won't criticise Cryne at all in terms of money spent - if it were my millions I'd be thinking long and hard about where the money went - but I'd have a more driven, business savvy board in place than we currently have.

The current way we do business will see us fall. How long will Hill or any other manager put up with his hard work and endeavour subsidising the inertia from other areas within the club ?

 

i dont continue to accept/defend ineptitude to make me feel better as i have no idea how the club is run and therefore dont make claims that i do, but hey, if your daily pops at the club give you a sense a satisfaction good luck to you

 

Course you do. It's clear that there are mistakes being made which are holding us back ranging from no beer in the Ponty End to Luke Steele's contracts to the shocking PR. Plain as day.

 

Correct 100% - officially endorsed by thereev

hth

 

Barnsley over many years has always been a selling club. It is the only way it survives. Right back to the Richards era it was always sell.
It was disappointing when we lost our better players last year, because we had a good team but we have to tighten our contracts up. We have not got Steele re signed as yet. T o say we are a Fourth Division Club is disappointing, and not encouraging to the Management and Fans. We need to get promoted and get the parachute payments which have put the likes of Blackpool etc in the money.

 

Maybe our selling club could try getting better deals for our players, then we may only have to sell one player every so often instead of a jumble sale every January.