A Tale Of Two Managers

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Two managers have essentially the same squad. One does an absolutely diabolical job and has the worst record of any BFC manager. The other performs minor miracles and is rightly loved and adored. The other, now revealed to be completely inept is still seen by some as being a good manager who was just a victim of circumstances.

Putting to one side opinions on Hill as a person, why do (certain) people still feel he was a good manager when all his excuses have been blown out of the water and we have proof that he could have done a much better job with the resources at his disposal.

 

he is a decent manager, but

not at this level. He did ok back at Rochdale it seems.

 

Best person to ask if Keef is a good manager is the manager that everybody is raving about now........that is to say Flicker

Then ask Flicker if he would work with him again

Then ask Flicker, if he could, would he have Keef back with him at his current job

Only guessing like............but I would imagine that all Flickers answers to that would be a big YES

For some unknown reason things just didn't happen for Keef at Barnsley..........but he put the building blocks together that have benefited Flicker
i would love to see Keef back at Barnsley in some sort of role while keeping Flicker as the team manager

 

He had great success (relatively speaking) at the only other club he's managed.

He had one decent half season with us, and two shocking halves.

Therefore I'd suggest he's not a terrible manager.

 

It isn't the same squad though is it? Loan players Greening, Buzsaky and Tudgay and also Davies (1/4 of the team) all missing from Flickers squad. A re shuffle of playing format and the intro of 2 better strikers making the difference. What we will never know is whether these two strikers were coming in anyway under Keefy. And what we also never know is whether Keefy would also have changed the format and got the ball forward quicker. Personally I think Keefy lost the plot and let his ego get in the way but I think he will eventually prove to be a good manager at some time, but only if he learns to control his ego.

 

Didn't you promise never to mention his name again if we stopped up?

Naughty Naughty!!

 

I think it was because he was different to every other manager in the league.

He spoke his mind, and when it was going well we all lapped it up. Especially the keefisms.

He tried playing football properly, and when it works it was outstanding (first half of Derby at home).

When things started to go wrong though the keefisms weren't funny. Especialy when he was knocking the club, town, players and fans.

 

On reflection, you have to say that some of Hill's recruits were fantastic...just a shame he couldn't get the best out of them.

 

Flitcroft worked a miracle and will have to continue doing that with a budget that in real terms has dropped year on year with the best players sold each season.

 

Just look at the differences though.

Hill split the fan base and there's no doubt he drove people away.

Flitcroft has united the fans. It feels like our club again. Hearing his plans are exactly what we all want for our club(regarding tickets, families, scoreboard, treatment of players etc.)

He's got the batteling spirit that Hill didn't have.

Positivity. Not overwhelming negativity.

 

I'm just waiting for the knives to come out and Flitcroft tells everyone Alnwick needs at least 100 games in the Championship or whoever we sign from L2 needs the same.

 

Who built that squad on a shoestring though? Who got us passing the ball after watching us aimlessly ping the ball 10 foot over Andy Gray's head for two years? Who used terms like 'endeavour' and 'DNA' and told us if our "aunty had balls she would be our uncle"? Who quoted Ian Brown in post-match interviews? Who did all of this resplendent in a Barbour jacket?

We had some ***** times under him but some great times too, and it was interesting being a Barnsley fan again after the dour apathy of what went before him. Keith was our Jay-Z. Rockstar pose and cool as ****. He went a bit mental and was a broken man by the end, but to quote the aforementioned "it looks like I (he) got my (his) swagger back". Admittedly at Spotland rather than Havana.

League position aside he left the club in a better postion than when he arrived, and a better manager than him is reaping the benefits. Plus Flicker's popularity is allowing him to challenge all the things at the club that Keith always complained about. In Keith-code of course.

I always think of The Simpsons when Homer leaves his job at the Kwik-E-Mart, and Apu says: "He slept, he stole, he was rude to the customers, still, there goes the best damn employee a convenience store ever had."

Cult hero.

 

I'm welling up here.

 

Just a quick note..........it wasn't Keef that personally turned the fans away.........it was the team results that did that, the same sort of results that have been turning the fans away ever since we came back up into the Championship
And this boils down to just one thing...........lack of funding at the club..........which has seen everyone of the managers struggle with since Barnsley got promoted from has 1st division

We have been lucky at Barnsley over this last few years that we have had good managers that have kept us in this division even though they have had no money available to compete for the better players

 

Great post, only spoiled slightly by not adding an image of the daft basterd.

 

Good ol' Keefy. No sacked manager has ever been talked about as much as him. He certainly left a mark.

 

If anything, I can accpet giving outfield players tiem to make mistaked but as goalkeeping mistakes usually mean goals conceeded we need to be as string as possible in that position. That does not mean Benannick to me.

 

The aimless passing was at the back instead. Which kept costing us goals.

 

What happened to defening Andy Gray. There was a dig at his inability to win anything in the air there.